marvel earth 114
by woolicane
Summary: My take on the marvel universe, totally au, set on Earth 114. Featuring Captain America, Spider-Man, Ironman, Fantastic 4, Hulk, Thor and many others. Back with a new chapter involving the Wasp, Antman and an alien Snark (mostly seen in Power Pack)
1. Prologue: Captain America

Marvel Earth:114 prologue: The Rise and Fall of Captain America

My name is Uatu, the Watcher, one of the great beings of the universe, sworn to watch the universe unfold, but never to interfere. The planet I watch most often is a small green/blue planet in the outer spiral of a far nebula, the planet is known as Earth. I watch it for the many wonders that unfold there, but nothing can prepare a watcher for the marvels about to come forth on this world.

The motions leading to the birth of these marvels can be traced back centuries, these may need to be talked of at some point, but for now we just need to head back to what the inhabitants of the planet call World War Two. A grim time for the planet, but it was also an age of heroes. Men and women heard the call and stood up for what they believed in. Both sides in this war birthed great heroes and great villains. One stood out above all others, his name was Steve Rogers, Captain America.

He started life as less than an average man. He even was turned down for military service because of a litany of health issues, but he still tried signing up again and again. Finally a scientist, impressed by his persistence, offered him a chance to become the soldier he wanted to be. A special process transformed him from a ninety pound weakling to the peak of physical fitness. He was strong and fast, he was the super soldier the army had been after. He was meant to only be the first, but as the experiment concluded Nazi agents destroyed the lab, killing the scientist, and nearly killing Rogers. It was only though the chemicals that he survived.

The end of the super soldier project meant that Rogers was moved away from leading troops and into becoming a mascot for the forces. He was sent to entertain and give messages of hope across first many US cities, then training camps abroad, along the way picking up a sidekick named Bucky. Bucky believed the hype around the Captain, even getting into fights with people that disrespected him, until the day twenty soldiers were taken and the Captain did nothing.

"I believed in you," Bucky berated, "I thought you were a hero, but those men needed us and we didn't help them."

"There was nothing you could have done kid," another soldier explained, "you'd have just been captured with them, or worse. Can't have that happen to our poster boy."

"He's not meant to be a poster boy, he's meant to be a hero."

With that young Bucky ran from the camp. Steve Rogers simply sat there and thought about things.

Almost an hour later Bucky felt a hand on his shoulder as he sobbed to himself in a small knoll near the camp. He looked up and saw Rogers stood there in full Captain America garb.

"I'm not doing another show Steve," Bucky told him defiantly.

"Neither am I," Rogers replied, sound more determined than Bucky had ever heard him before. "You were right, I should have done something, those men needed me, they need me now too. I'm going to save our troops, please tell them what I'm doing, tell them this is who Captain America is, they can't kill Captain America, no matter what happens to me, that spirit is in all of us."

Captain America smiled to his young ward and ran off into the night. Bucky looked back to the camp, thinking about going back and telling them what his friend had told him, but instead he followed Captain America on his heroic mission. If he had not Rogers would have failed, Bucky arrived in time to save him and between them they brought the troops back.

After this and a long row with a lot of military commanders, Captain America became more than a punch line, he fought real threats, saved real lives, became the man Bucky always thought he didn't fight alone either, he gained new allies, and formed the All-Winners Squad, consisting of himself and Bucky; Canadian mercenary Logan, British agents Spitfire and Union Jack; All-American android The Torch with his sidekick Toro and scion of Atlantis Namor. The team had many adventures, saved many\ lives and defeated many evils. They had moments of joy, like the birth of Namor's son to a surface girl, and moments of tragedy, such as the seeming death of Bucky. Captain America struggled to recover from that, but he kept fighting through it all until the war was won.

The fall of Hitler only led to more threats however. After the war ended the All-Winners squad, depleted to only the Torch, Captain America and Union Jack, alongside a platoon of soldiers nicknamed the Howling Commandos, fought a secret organisation known as Hydra. Finally they tracked the group to their main headquarters, a remote island in the arctic circle. It was here that many events occurred that changed the world, but the mission began like so many others.

"Bugger me," Union Jack complained, "it's cold."

The Torch just looked back at him and smiled.

"If you're not up to it any more and want to g back to drinking tea and eating crumpets, we'll understand."

"You do know we don't live like that, right."

"Enough guys," Captain America chimed in, "this is serious, I need you focused."

"Oh come on Cap," Union Jack moaned, "this'll be like the last ten leads we followed, nothing but a waste of..."

His last word was lost to the explosion that greeted them, knocking the heroic trio into the lower floors of the outpost, leaving the Howling Commandos to explore the upper areas.

"Still think it's a dead end?" Captain America gently ribbed, "everyone okay?"

"Nothing wounded but my pride," Union Jack snorted.

"Likewise, downed but not out."

The trio regained their footing and began trekking through the building, taking on and easily defeating small groups of Hydra soldiers. Finally they reached a vast expanse with a metal gantry crossing it. Above them were huge vats filled with a strange white liquid while far below was an icy river. Two men waited for them on the gantry, one they recognised as the Red Skull, the head of Hydra, the other looked like a young man, he seemed somehow familiar, though his outfit, and seemingly cyborg arm, was new to them.

"Greetings," the Red Skull announced polity in his rich German accent, "welcome to your final resting place."

"Look Fritz," Union Jack called back, he was always one for being direct, "we kicked your backside when you were working for Hitler, give up now or we do it again."

"I was forgetting you had an oh so noble Tommy on your team," his voice dripped with sarcasm, "he will be the first to die. But he is right, when we followed that madman we lost, this is true. This will not happen now though, for now the Red Skull is in charge."

"Just trading one mad man for another."

"Oh but you think you can stop my plot, you are wrong, I will use the greatest weapon I have to defeat you, time. The vats above feature a special chemical which will preserve me until my army is strong enough to rule all."

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen,"the Torch answered back.

"You will not for I have my own super soldier, stronger even then your own Captain," Red Skull indicates the man to his right, "he is my Winter Soldier, and now he will kill you."

With that the man beside the Red Skull ran forward, drawing his gun. Captain America was barely able to get his shield up in time to block the barrage of shots. As he did the Torch rose up behind him, flames engulfing his form. He speared toward the advancing Winter Soldier, only to be met by a hail of bullets loosing the snow gathered on the broken landing above them linking the tanker to the outpost. The snow quickly engulfed the Torch, dowsing his flames and leaving him buried. The Winter Soldier planned to fire into the drift and finish off the android but Union Jack was charging him and opening the attack with his twin revolvers. Winter Soldier used his mechanical arm to block the shots. He then swiftly grabbed the Brit round the throat as soon as he was in range. Union Jack found himself hoisted from the ground and tossed over the side of the gantry. The Torch burst from the snow drift in time to see this and immediately took off after his falling comrade. In the meantime, Captain America and the Winter Soldier began fighting. Every attack Captain America tried was countered by the young man he was facing. The same was true when the roles reversed, the Winter Soldier was becoming frustrated at Captain America countering his every attack. Finally Captain America flipped back away from the fight, regrouping with his equally outmatched allies.

"You can't win," mocked the Red Skull, "the Winter Soldier is trained in ten hand to hand fighting styles, armed with more weapons than any soldier in history, and has the reaction times of a jungle cat."

"We don't have to beat him," Captain America pointed out in a whisper to his team, "we need to take out the base and the tanker of chemicals, that is the priority. You two do that while I distract the tin man."

"I lost my guns when I took the ride..."

"Take mine, I've never been a big fan of them anyway."

Captain America hands his pistol to Union Jack and then the trio split, with Captain America heading to the advancing Winter Soldier while Torch and Union Jack ran to the ravine. Red Skull instantly knew what they were planning. He shouted his orders to the Winter Soldier.

"Forget the Captain," he bellowed, "those others are going after the chemical."

The Winter Soldier never heard him though, he had been programmed to hate Captain America, that was now the only thing on his mind as the two squared off again. As such the Red Skull, along with a team of Hydra agents, less than the Skull had hoped for, suggesting the battle above was going badly for him, faced the duo now flying across the ravine.

With one hand wrapped around the arm of the Torch, Union Jack opened fire with his borrowed pistol, taking down the Hydra agents as best he could. The trouble he was finding was that for each one he took out another two replaced them. Soon they had crossed the ravine but were fighting more soldiers than they could comfortably handle and were getting more and more outnumbered with every minute. So much so that when the Howling Commandos arrived it seemed to make no difference to the result.

Captain America was doing no better. True that no matter what pistol, riffle or grenade the Winter Soldier used, Captain America and his shield dealt with it, but Captain America couldn't change his defensive skill into offence. That was until the cocky Hydra warrior overestimated his skill and landed a powerful side kick against the metal gantry. In the split-second of confusion and pain, Captain America flung out a powerful right hook. His fist smashed into the armoured temple of his foe. This strike was enough to break the latch on the mask. It fell away and Captain America froze. He knew the face of the Winter Soldier. It was Bucky. He didn't have long to think on this. As he stayed still the Winter Soldier lashed out. A back handed left cuffed the Captain. A front kick followed. Then a roundhouse. Captain America staggered with the blow, but he now had his back to the Winter Soldier. He felt the Soldier's arm took round his neck. The force was incredible. Captain America knew he couldn't get any air in and that he couldn't pull the arm away. Before he could pass out, Captain America dashed backward, driving the Soldier into the railing of the gantry. The impact gave Captain America the chance to roll away from the choke hold. He did so, further onto the Winter Soldier followed him.

"I don't want to hurt you Bucky," Captain America pleaded, "we don't have to fight."

"Oh but you do," mocked the Red Skull.

The Skull was confident that his soldiers could handle both the Howling Commandos and the two remaining members of the All-Winners Squad. As such he returned his attention to the battle between his personal assassin and his archnemesis. Captain America looked at the villain with a venomous look.

"What have you done to my friend?" Captain America demanded.

"I saved his life," the mocking tone remained in the Skull's voice, "more than you did. I made him your equal. No, your better. A true hero for my new world order. That begins now when he destroys you."

Captain America raised his shield to protect himself from the Winter Soldier's next attack, a powerful straight right from his robotic arm. Captain America continued dodging round the attacks, using the narrow gantry as a pommel, but never striking back.

"You will fight him," Red Skull demanded in frustration.

"I will never hurt my friend," Captain America answered defiantly.

This seemed to give the Winter Soldier pause for a moment.

"If you don't," the Red Skull warned as he drew a pistol, "I will drop you where you stand. This gun is loaded with explosive bullets that will destroy anything, even your shield."

This caught Captain America's attention. He instantly moved, flipping in front of the Winter Soldier and kicked out. His feet hit the Soldier in the chest. The attack was more about knocking the Winter Soldier back and giving Captain America space rather than inflicting pain. He then twisted to face Red Skull. A moment later and Captain America's shield was streaking toward the weapon. It hit the Red Skull's hand, leading to the gun flipping upward. Captain America glanced at his shield as it dropped out of sight. He then flipped up on to the rail. He used it it to vault upward toward the gun. As he reached it he grabbed it. He then landed in a crouch between the Red Skull and the Winter Soldier.

"Well done," Red Skull gave a condescending round of applause, "you now have a real weapon, but only one shot. Shoot me and Winter Soldier will be there to kill you. Shoot him and, not only will you loose your oldest friend, I will be able to stab you in what is left of your heart. I think it may be fun to let you choose."

Red Skull drew a short knife but made no movement to stop Captain America. The Captain let his eyes travel from the Skull to the Winter Soldier, he was standing there ready to pounce, then back to the Skull again. A hand lifted up to his mask, activating it's radio so he could speak to Union Jack and the Torch one last time.

"Come in All-Winners," he said, his voice choked with sadness.

"We read you Cap," Torch answered, shocked at hearing his friend with this tone.

"We've got these toerags on the run now," chimed in Union Jack.

"I knew you would, but it's too late, get everyone clear now."

"What are you talking about you mad bugger?"

"Don't do this Cap."

"It's the only way. Tell Peggy I love her."

With that the two remaining members of the All-Winners Squad could only watch helplessly as Captain America turned and pointed the gun at the tankard above him. Both Red Skull and the Winter Soldier darted toward him, but they were too late. The bullet left the barrel as they reached him, less than a moment later the bullet exploded, ripping a giant hole in the tank and releasing the contents. The chemical tidal wave washed over the gantry and when it cleared all three men were gone. A search was conducted but no bodies were ever found.

Without their leader Hydra began fading away. A few groups claiming to be them surfaced over the years but a new force was founded to combat them. This force, that had grown out of what had been the Howling Commandos was named SHIELD. Union Jack did join them however, he headed home to Britain where he helped set up a British equivalent; named STRIKE. They became the prime peace keeping forces across the world, even establishing links with troubled African nation Wakanda.

This is but the scratching of the surface for this world. Tales of two men meeting in the sixties, one a man of peace, the other a man of action, will have an impact on the fate f this world like few others. One of those others is the banding together of a quartet of science students; Hank, Reed, Tony and Bruce; into what they called the Fantastic Four. These tales set the stage for what is to come, I know this for I am the Watcher.


	2. Origin Hulk

2\. Earth 114 Origins

1\. The shoulders of giants.

David Bruce Banner, he always went by Bruce, David was his father, had always found it hard to settle in any one place. Since leaving university with a first class science degree, one only rivalled by the trio he'd called his best friends there, he'd worked in over a dozen places. His temper had lost him a few collage research roles before he worked in the private sector. Since then there had been at, among others, Braddock Enterprises; Oscorp; Ultratech; Worthington Industries; the Kirby Institute, the Storm Foundation and even Stark International. For one reason or another these places just didn't work out. Sometimes it was rows with how management conducted themselves, sometimes it was the unsafe working conditions that he preferred to work in, very occasionally it was about the money. Now he was as content as he had been when he was sharing a frathouse with the three biggest science geeks he'd ever known.

He was working for SHIELD, a secret government department charged with protecting the Earth from greater threats than can be handled by other means. The commander of this group, Nick Fury, liked to keep what that remit meant as vague as possible. He wasn't reporting to Fury, Fury was on the helicarrier somewhere far above America while Bruce was underground beneath New Mexico in the gamma base. There he reported to General Ross, formally of the US army. Bruce didn't like a soldier being in charge, he had always considered the army to get in the way of research, always looking for ways to weaponise his work, but for the most part Ross left him alone. Plus it didn't hurt that Bruce was getting sweet on Ross's daughter Betty.

Like Bruce, Betty was also a scientist, she was the project leader until Bruce came along. This started them off on the wrong foot, causing tension between them, but as the months in close proximity passed they became friends and slowly more than that. The project had been running for as long as SHIELD had existed, but Bruce had only been on it for less than a year; it was known as Operation:Super Patriot. it was about creating a new Super Soldier project; like the one that created Captain America back in World War two, so far it had failed every time. Bruce suspected the remains of the failed experiments were kept deep in the depths of the gamma base, but he never went to find out. He'd rather not know for certain. Instead he and Betty focused on how they intended to create their version of the Super Soldier process.

The night that fate intervened Bruce and Betty had been working late, Bruce was sure they had just about reached the breakthrough they had been chasing. They had successfully unlocked the physical potential within the lab rats they had been testing on. The rats had doubled in size, become stronger, more agile and seemed to have unlimited endurance. Better than that, a simple injection of a sedative returned the rats to normal with no side effects. These short bursts of exposure to the so called gamma ray, the ray actually used a lot more than just gamma radiation, were controllable, predictable and consistent. The duo were simply making sure the safety features in the device were enough to begin human testing. Bruce thought they were ready, Betty was still not convinced.

"We don't know what repeated or continual exposure will do to the rats," Betty reminded him.

"There've been no negative side effects to speak of," Bruce reminded her, "and your father has been pushing to get the human testing underway."

"What about the upturn in aggression, even after the sedative was given to Albert the last time we changed him he was behaving much more aggressively than Julius and Issac."

Albert, Julius and Issac were the trio of rats they had been testing on.

Before Bruce could answer, General Ross had walked into the lab. He was a thick set man who clearly had a temper, just a simple glance at him told you that, he was also very protective of his daughter, he wasn't convinced that Bruce was good enough for her. As soon as Betty saw her father she rushed over to him to hug him, though he didn't hug her back, Bruce simply nodded a welcome to him. Ross continued staring at Bruce throughout this welcome.

"What can we do for you dad?" Betty asked as she released him.

"It's getting late Betty," Ross told her, totally ignoring her question, "why don't you head up to the surface, there's a big party going on in Vista Verde tonight, I'd like you to attend. Besides me and the kid need to talk."

"Dad, he's thirty three, not really a kid."

"It's okay Betty," Bruce reassured her, "I can deal with old Thunderbolt Ross. I'll see you at the party later."

Betty reluctantly agreed and left. As soon as Ross was sure Betty was out of earshot he rounded on Bruce.

"You won't," Ross almost roared, "I'm tired of you two spending so much time together."

"What's that got to do with you?" Bruce demanded, he raised his voice as loud as Ross had, "she's a grown woman."

"She's my daughter, she always will be, and I don't want you seeing her."

"We work together."

"Not for much longer if you don't start human testing soon. A team are coming tomorrow to see what progress you've made since testing on those rats, if they're not impressed you're off the project."

"That's crazy, we need time to make sure the tests will be done safely. I don't want somebody getting hurt because my calculations are wrong."

"That's your problem," Ross told him smugly, "not mine."

With that Ross marched out leaving an angry and desperate Bruce Banner behind him. For a moment Bruce thinks of simply running to Betty and telling her what's happened, asking her to walk out with him, but he couldn't ask her to do that. He didn't just want to walk out without seeing her though. After an hour of thinking about what Ross had said, reading through notes and checking on the trio of lab rats, he came to what he decided was his only solution. He decided he'd test the gamma ray on himself.

He left the lab, looking for someone to help him set the test up, the only person he could find was the janitor, Sam Sterns. Bruce knew nothing about Sterns, he'd seen him everyday he'd been working there, but never once spoken to him, but Bruce could see no other choice. He called over to him.

"It's Sam isn't it?" Bruce tried to hide his rage as he spoke to the serviceman.

Sterns was surprised Bruce knew his name but that didn't mean he was going to be any nicer to him.

"What do you want?" came the terse response.

"How would you like to share the glory of my project here."

"I'm listening," Sterns was still sounding agressive, but he genuinely was curious about what Bruce wanted.

"I need to test the gamma ray," Bruce tried to explain.

"You ain't testing it on me," Sterns quickly interrupted.

"I don't want to test it on you, I wouldn't test it on someone unless I was sure it was safe. That's why I'm testing it on myself. I need some one ready to give me the sedative when I prove it works and to control the dose of gamma I get."

Reluctantly Sterns agreed and the duo carried the experimental device to the testing centre. Bruce explained that the device itself contained a charge powerful enough to empower fifty men using revolutionary crystal cells. Sterns doesn't really listen to Bruce babbling on. Truth was he didn't have much time for either the scientists or the soldiers in the gamma base, neither gave him any respect. Now he could show them though, now he was needed to help in possibly the most important test in the base's history. He halfheartedly listened as Bruce explained to him that the event was being filmed. The instructions on how the ray worked got Sterns attention more. Bruce talked about the safety features that meant only a small amount of power would escape the ray per second or that only allowed the beam to travel in a single direction rather than flooding the area. Finally Bruce was ready, he let Sterns latch him into the chair the ray was pointed at and prepared for what was about to happen.

"Ready," Bruce said, half a question, half a statement.

"Oh yes," Sterns chuckled as he flicked a couple of switches on the ray.

"What are you doing," Bruce demanded, "you just increased the dosage."

"Have I," Sterns mocked, "I wouldn't know would I, I'm just a stupid janitor. A lacky, a nobody, certainly not someone important to you or Ross or anyone else here. Well guess what, I'm important to you now. One push of this button and you're finished."

"Don't do this," Bruce pulled angrily at his bonds but he isn't strong enough to free himself. "It's not too late yet."

"Oh but for you it is."

Sterns pressed the activation button and is kicked back by the recoil of the device. A blast of green energy fired out and hit Bruce square in his chest.

"What have you done," Bruce yelled as the pain passed through him.

Sterns was in no condition to answer, he was laid out beside the door. Slowly more and more of the gamma power fed into Bruce Banner's system. His eyes began to turn a strange shade of green.

Vista Verde never got really cold, but in early February they liked to have a celebration that they'd made it through the harshness of winter. Originally it had been a celebration that the tribes of this bedevilled area of New Mexico had survived the terrors visited on them once more. Now it was mostly an excuse for a good party. This time the celebration was being shared with the residents of the gamma base, including the beautiful Betty Ross. She was used to getting a lot of male attention, men had outnumbered women in every class and job she'd ever been in, but she wasn't enjoying it that night. Her thoughts, along with her heart, was with Bruce. She was beginning to worry that he hadn't turned up yet. She was worried he'd done something stupid. She walked over to her father when he arrived and asked him if he'd seen Bruce, but he was vague and smug.

"I'm sure he'll turn up," Ross told her, "he probably had some thinking to do. He'll be here any minute now."

As if on cue, the ground began to rumble. Screams flooded the celebration at these mini quakes, but nothing like the screams that were heard when a giant green skinned man smashed through the ground. He was big, well over seven foot, built like a tank and most of all he was angry.

"What is that thing," Mayor Stan stuttered.

"HULK NOT A THING," the monster shouted, "HULK IS HULK. AND HULK HERE FOR ROSS."

"You want me monster," Ross replied, drawing his gun, "come get me."

Ross fired the gun but the bullets didn't even break the Hulk's skin. Hulk reached out and wrapped his massive paw round the pistol. The sound of rending steel left the weapon crushed into a ball.

"PUNY GUN," Hulk snarled, "PUNY MAN."

Hulk reared back, ready to punch General Ross. Before he could though Hulk was set upon by men in compression armour and taser sticks. The armour had been designed to absorb a major impact without hurting the person in the suit. They had been tested in eighty miles-an-hour car crashes. No one wearing them had been hurt at those speeds but they didn't want to risk testing it further. The nearest guard took a single punch to the gut from the Hulk. He was lifted from the ground by the impact. He hit the ground five feet away and had three cracked ribs, not to mention he was spitting up blood. This didn't deter the other two from attacking, landing their tasers against the Hulk's flesh. This just seemed to make him angrier.

During this confusion Sam Sterns appeared out of one of the shell buildings that worked as an elevator to the gamma base. He carried the sedative in a hypodermic in his hand. Betty saw him and rushed over to find out what was going on. She noticed that he was looking rather pale himself.

"That's Bruce isn't it?" Betty demanded.

"How?" Sterns began but then remembered that he didn't care, "yes it is. He used his ray on himself, it turned him into this monster."

"We need to inject him with that sedative, his anger is out of control, that's what's powering this creature. Quickly giver it to me."

"But of course," Sterns sounded so calm, almost unnaturally so.

He reached out with the glass phyle, ready to hand it over, the he opened his hand. The glass tube fell to the ground and shattered, the liquid seeping into the ground worthlessly. Betty stared at his grinning face desperately.

"Whoops," he said insincerely.

Betty did the only thing she could. She smacked Sterns. It was the powerful strike of a woman who had spent her entire life in a male dominated world. She then turned back to the scene with Bruce, her father and the SHIELD guards meant to be trained for this sort of emergency. She watched as the last SHIELD agent was taken out of the fight. He was flung through the wall of the town's diner. The Hulk then turned back to General Ross. Ross was not backing down. He had instead armed himself with a bazooka. Hulk stalked forward. Ross fired. At that close range the explosive power knocked Ross backward five feet. Hulk did not move. He simply let out a loud roar. Ross's eyes filled his face. He realised this would be it. He had no way to survive this. He couldn't, wouldn't, run. He couldn't fight this monster. He could only accept it.

"HULK SMASH," the monster roared.

He raised his hand to strike the general but before he could some one stepped between them. Her name was Betty Ross. Hulk hesitated.

"Betty move," Ross ordered but he was ignored.

"Bruce," she said softly, "I know you're in there. Don't do this. I know you're angry. That rage has taken control. Let the anger go Bruce. I love you."

Hulk's fist uncurled.

"Betty," the Hulk growled sadly.

Hulk looked to his hands, then to Betty, finally to Ross. He couldn't ask her to come. He turned and leapt away. A single jump took him out of town and into the desert.

Sterns had no idea how long he'd been unconscious. What he did know was that he was in a cold damp room. The room was dark and dank and had bars on one side. On the other side of those bars sat Betty Ross. She was staring at him with hatred in her eyes. His cheek felt bruised where she had hit him.

"I wanted you to know Bruce is gone," Betty told him coldly.

"Bruce was gone the minute the gamma ray was turned on," Sterns retorted.

"We've seen the footage, we know you did this to him."

"You think that footage will be enough to convict me? I was asked to do something beyond my abilities. No jury will convict me."

"That's who you'll be facing, no jury. We have picked up faint traces of radiation on you, you're going to be housed with the other failed experiments, perfectly legally."

She got up and began walking away.

"Jailed without trial," Sterns called after her, "all principles forgotten out of anger and bitterness. You think Bruce was the only monster I created here."

Betty bowed her head, she knew he was right. She kept on walking. Slowly Sam Sterns began to chuckle to himself. Soon the chuckle became a deep and hearty laugh. He knew it wasn't him that was a prisoner. Somewhere far off in a cave in the mountains Hulk raged.


	3. Origin Ironman

3\. Marvel 114 Origins

2\. Invincible

"It is my sad duty to inform you that Anthony Edward Stark is dead."

A simple statement but it set every journalist in the room buzzing. This was fast becoming the biggest news story since the 'monster' attack in New Mexico. The man reporting the news was Obadiah Stane, the acting head of Stark International since Tony's kidnap. The press had spent a month talking about this event, Tony, while on a trip to Khondii Suuder to inspect how his weapons were being used, had been grabbed by a group of terrorists. A group calling themselves the Ten Ring Society had claimed responsibility. They threatened to kill him if America didn't pull all troops out of the tiny middle eastern nation. Naturally this could not be done and thus this sad news was being announced.

"Have you seen evidence of Mr Stark's death?" Ned Leeds of the Daily Bugle asked.

"I have seen a video," Stane replied bluntly, "a bag was placed over Stark's head and then he was shot. Not much left to the imagination."

Behind Stane, Pepper Potts, Tony's assistant and close friend since school blubbed into her handkerchief. Stane seemed to not notice the effect his bluntness was having on the tearful red head.

"What will happen to Stark International now?" another reporter asked.

"The company will continue to grow. I will continue to guide the company while the board choose Tony's successor. The company is in safe hands."

"Was there any truth to the rumours that you and Mr Stark were having disagreements about the direction the company should be going in?"

"I have been Tony's adviser since the death of his father. Though we did not agree on everything the announcement of his death is not the time to try and make something of these discussions. I loved Tony like a son, I feel a heavy loss and I find your insinuations disgusting. No further questions."

With that Stane began walking away. His aid, Natasha Stephens, started to explain that further statements would be issued in due course and that it was now time for the reporters, camera crews and photographers to go home.

"Don't let them leave yet," a voice echoed over a loud speaker above the crowd, "they'll miss the best part."

Despite the distortion on the voice and the hideous reverb that was caused by the copter descending into an area filled with tall buildings, several people recognised the voice. Most notably Stane and Pepper.

"Tony," she whispered, hardly daring to believe it.

"As another great man once said; 'the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated'."

Tony Stark was stood in the open hatchway of an old army helicopter. Suddenly all cameras switched from Stane to Stark.

Stane turned off his TV. He couldn't sit through anymore of Tony's self-congratulatory address. He was back in his office ruing the events of the day. His beautiful blond aid was sat at her desk half listening to his rantings and half dealing with the fall out of the events on social media.

"I was this close," Stane moaned, "the company was about to be mine. The board would have just voted me in."

"Yes sir," Natasha responded uncommittedly. "Tell me again why you wanted the company."

The question was a strange one, but Stane was raging now and didn't think to question it.

"Because I built this company up alongside Tony's father,'' he told her, "from the ground up every weapon we made, every innovation has my fingerprints on them."

"And Tony wanted to change that?"

"He wanted to develop in his own way. I get that. That's not the problem. The problem is he's cutting me out of the company. He's handling development without me, meeting clients without me, loosing customers we've had since day one without even talking about it with me."

"That's why you had him kidnapped?"

This was a leading question and Stane was still able to spot them. He looked at the back of Natasha's head. She didn't even turn to look at him when he fell silent. It was as if she didn't know she'd said something wrong. He began to wonder about her.

"What makes you think I had anything to do with that?" Stane asked suspiciously.

"Fine then," she retorted acting like he was the one behaving oddly, "you didn't have anything to do with it. Just thought I could be a better aid for you if you actually trusted me with all your business dealings."

Stane was shocked at the audacity of this woman. He wasn't desturbed by it. The opposite, he was rather impressed, but he had to know if he could trust her. He asked her to leave him, he wanted time alone. He watched her leave, first out his office door, then down the coridor and into the lift. He even used the cameras built into the lift to watch her travel down to the canteen. Only when he was sure that she was gone did Stane begin the call he knew he would have to make.

"I've been waiting for your call," came the warm, calm voice on the other end of the line.

"You didn't kill Tony," Stane replied angrily.

"Mr Stane, it is I that should be angry. You promised me a weak target and assured me no one would come to save him."

"We refused all help and he has a heart condition."

"And yet soldiers were sent and Stark made a weapon for himself. I am sending you the remains of it. The usual drop off site. Make it something we can use."

"Why should I?"

"The large amount of money you get for us using this firm."

With that the man he was talking to hung up on Stane.

Five floors up was Tony's penthouse lab, Pepper and Tony were just arriving there having seen off the last of the press. Tony had promised them one of his big parties before the week is out. These parties were legendary, partly for who attends, partly for the crazy events that happen there, partly for the lavish settings and decoration. Tony had always been known for his hedonistic lifestyle. Pepper was just glad to have him back, and alone, she didn't even care that he wanted to book The Dazzler for the party. She was expecting Tony to tell her how he escaped in great detail. That was how he usually responded to one of his misadventures. Instead he simply rushed from her side as soon as he was in the lab. He was heading for his armour.

"Tony," Pepper complained, "you've only just made it back. Can't you leave your toys alone for a bit?"

"You don't get it," he enthused, "it works. I got to test it and it works."

"You've been gone a month," she reminded him, "how could you test it?"

"You probably don't want to know," he grinned at her before addressing his AI computer, "Jarvis, call up the schematics for armour mark I."

"I know I don't want to hear it," she stated plainly, "but I think you better tell me."

"I sort of Jerry-rigged a suit using an old eighties jeep and an old UTC computer. It really worked, every system, before it sort of fell apart."

"It fell apart?"

"Well I put it together quickly in the backroom of a shack. I'm not the A Team you know."

"You put on an improvised, experimental, untested suit to escape a bunch of terrorists? That's just ridiculous. Hang on," Pepper had suddenly realised the problem, or at least a problem, with this explanation, "how did you power the suit?"

"That's where the break through came. I used my arc reactor."

"You did what?" Pepper was aghast. "You used the one piece of tech your father made to keep your heart going to power a battlesuit that fell apart. Do you even have the reactor in your chest?"

Tony had the good grace to look sheepish.

"Without it you'll die Tony."

Tony broke off from working on his armour to take out a new power core for the device in his chest. He had gotten so good at replacing them by this point in his life it only took him five minutes. During that entire time Pepper was lecturing him on the dangers his heart condition had for him. That he needed to slow down. That he was already burnt out two power cores that year and it wasn't even the end of February. Finally when both she and the process were done, Tony returned to the armour.

"So do you want to hear my big break through?" Tony asked, still grinning.

Pepper knew he hadn't listened to a word she'd said.

"Fine," she answered with a sigh.

"The arc reactor is keyed to my DNA," Tony said as if this was the most natural thing in the world. "That's why we couldn't just mass produce it to help everyone with the defect. It also worked with the autofunction in the armour, giving me full mental control once I had it on."

"So you intend to convert an arc reactor into the heart of the armour," Pepper amazed herself how much of Tony's technobabble she'd picked up and now used herself, "so it becomes linked to your mind."

Tony turned to her. He placed both his hands on either side of her cranium and kissed her forehead. She completely understood his plan.

Stane hated the old motel. It was ten miles out of New York and felt dirty. Not the sort of place a man of his standing should be. Trouble was that it was this exact reason why it had been chosen as the pick up point. Stane understood that. That was why he agreed. It didn't mean he had to like it. He went up to the usual room. When he normally was there he usually walked away with a bag of money or he was dropping off something he couldn't ship himself. This time what he found in the dank, dark and dusty room were piles of what looked like scrap metal. He found the rudiments of a petrol powered jet pack. What looked like a basic version of the Stark Repulsor Ray was built into what might have been an arm. A comlink had even been set up using the remains of a car stereo was in what Stane would loosely call the helmet. He was impressed by what Stark could cobble together out of old junk, but if he was going to make it into the sort of weapon the client wanted, it had to be better than cobbled together junk. Now he had a project.

Over the next few days, as Tony worked on his armour, even taking it for test flights, while Pepper dealt with the board, investors and the press, the papers began to get reports of an Ironman near Stark Tower. Tony had tried to laugh it off every time Pepper mentioned it. He was more concerned with insulating the suit to stop it freezing up as it reached higher altitudes. Pepper was trying to stop him working on the project, but he wouldn't listen. She even brought in his old school friend James Rhodes but that didn't help. Rhody spent the whole time either checking out Stane's aid, who he claimed he recognised from somewhere, or trying to talk Tony into making him one next. Finally, on the day of his big return party, Tony was ready to talk to someone else. He had got Jarvis to make a video call to Nick Fury.

"What do you want?" Fury demanded as his eye-patched face appeared on the screen.

"I love it when your forceful," Tony gently ribbed.

"I'm busy Stark, get on with it."

Stark smiled, he loved teasing Fury, and Fury made it so easy, rising to his bate every time.

"Well," Stark began, his smile mutating into a wicked grin, "it's my big party tonight. I thought you might want to come along..."

"No you didn't," Fury replied irritably, "and no I don't. Get to your point."

"Okay, fine, I never got to thank the team that saved me, Barton, Wilson and Morse wasn't it. I figured I'd send them a car each. Tell them to name the make and model and it's theirs."

"They can't accept gifts Tony, you know that."

"Then tell them to pick a charity each and each one will get $10,000."

"Fine I will. I'm glad to have you back Stark, but if I'd known you were going to be so long winded in getting to the reason you called, I'd have left you in that cave to rot a bit longer. You only ever really call me to show off a new toy you want to sell us, so let's see the suit."

"What suit?" Tony tried to play coy with the fed up military leader.

"We get the Daily Bugle up here you know, we've seen the stories about an Ironman flying round your building."

"I've been meaning to say something abut that, it's actually an alloy blend of metals with iron taking up less than twenty eight point seven per cent."

"The name's going to stick. Now are you going to show me it?"

"Actually it's just the gauntlets I wanted to show you."

Tony held up his arms to show slimmed down versions of the armour stood in the corner of the room. It had been rendered in red and golden metal. He pointed the arm at a solid chunk of metal, his palm facing it. A blast fired out the end of it. The lump of metal shattered when the beam hit it. Fury didn't look impressed.

"You've mobilised the gun we bought off you, that's great, but nothing too major. Losing you touch?"

"Repulsor ray," Tony corrected, "and I've done more than mobilised it. It's linked to my cerebral cortex and responds to thoughts. Tech you only have to think about to use. This is a whole new revaluation Fury. This is the a game's a game. And I'm offering SHIELD the chance to be involved from the word go."

"And make you a heap of cash."

"It's not about the money," Tony assured, "I'll make that no matter what. I was just thinking your boys needed an upgrade. Agent Barton saved my life, but he was using a bow and arrow. What kind of agent uses a bow and arrow?"

"The kind with a hawkeye aim and a trick quiver that loads the arrows up with explosives, liquid nitrogen and taser clips. Besides you know we can't deal with Stark Industries. Not with the talk of it selling weapons t terrorists."

"You know I wouldn't..."

"Not you Stark, if I thought you were a traitor we wouldn't be talking now. I have to check it out though, and I think we know who it is. You're not going to like this Tony. I'm going to need your help to draw him out."

"Who is it?"

"Obadiah Stane."

Tony took a step back, his hand instinctively reaching for the whisky on his work surface. As he glugged it down an audio file appeared in Jarvis' inbox from Fury. It played the phone conversation between Stane and his contact in the ten ring gang.

"What do you need me to do?" He asked as the tragedy sank in.

It had been an hour since Stane had gone up to see Tony. Now he was stamping back into his office. He seemed angry to Natasha, she hardly dared ask what had happened. A single swipe of his right hand and all the papers on his desk were scattered to the floor.

"That ungrateful punk has fired me," Stane snarled.

"Why?" Natasha asked, her face remaining neutral.

"He said we're going a different direction. He's giving me a top severance package, but nothing like I deserve. He's announcing it to the board tonight at his big party."

A thought suddenly seemed to pass through his mind. Natasha seemed to know just what he was thinking. She turned for the door. A hand landed on her shoulder.

"Oh don't go Miss Stephens," Stane smirked, "you'll miss the show. You said you wanted to help me anyway you could, well you can watch my rise to greatness. Wouldn't it be a shame if Tony didn't make it to his big party."

Tony and Pepper stood on the small stage area. Tony had a drink in his hand, Pepper had her phone. Behind him a band had set up ready to entertain the crowd of nearly three thousand that had gathered in the hall of Stark Tower. Either side of the stage, built into the wall, was a massive speaker system design exactly fr the room. Tony tapped the microphone in front of him and a loud knocking echoed round the hall. Every eye in the place turned to look at Tony.

"Ladies and gentlemen and the members of the press," he smirked, "this week, thanks to the brave service of our armed forces, I survived a truly traumatic ordeal. I could say this event has changed me, it has, that it will change the direction of Stark Industries, it will, but I'd much rather welcome to my humble abode here in New York City the beautiful, the talented, the always dazzling Alison Blair."

He motioned to the blond singer stood in the middle of the band behind him. Before either the crowd or the band could react however an explosion took the attention to the other end of the room. Stood in what had once been a doorway was a man in a suit of armour flanked by a dozen terrorists armed with a selection of weapons from guns to knives. The armour was incredibly high tech, it had a jet pack built into it's back, missiles loaded on each arm, and repulsor cannons in each palm.

"You escaped once Stark," Stane announced from under the domed helmet, "but you won't this time."

A trio of guests exchanged glances. While the other guests pulled away from the representatives of the Ten Ring Society this trio moved forward. The leader of the trio, a blond haired man with razor-sharp eyes, drew a bow as he charged. Moments later an arrow was fired that exploded as it hit the armoured Stane. He was unaffected but the shock wave had left the men round him dazed and easy pickings for the athletically built black man and the lithe platinum blond girl.

During this confusion, Tony had slipped out of the hall through a hidden back door. He knew he could count on Rhody and Pepper to get everyone out that way. He on the other hand had other intentions. He had left his most refined armour, the mark IV, close to the hall ready for this and was quickly heading back to the party as Ironman. He burst in to see the dozen terrorists had been taken down, but so had the SHIELD agents, Agent Wilson, the black man, being the final one to fall to repulsor fire. Ironman stepped between the agents and Stane.

"Party's over," Tony boldly declared.

"I don't think so," came the cocky reply.

This was followed by a round of repulsor fire that knocked Ironman off his feet and tumbling backward. He managed to reset himself into a crouch as the crowd began muttering about his appearance.

"Well that could have gone better," Tony muttered to himself beneath his helmet.

Stane was stalking toward him dramatically.

"If it isn't the Invincible Ironman we've been seeing in the paper," Stane mocked, hitting him on the back of the head with a powerful forearm strike.

Tony felt his armoured form hit the ground from the force of the blow. He thought about getting up but didn't move.

"If you're the Ironman," Stane continued to goad, "then I guess I'm the Iron Monger."

He kicked Tony in the gut, pain shot through him despite the armour.

"And I'm going to crush you in that tin can of yours."

The Iron Monger reached down and wrapped his large armoured hand round Ironman's helmet, dragging him from the floor. Tony could hear the metal creaking round him. He knew he had to escape before it was too late. He raised both arms and fired his repulsor rays. It was enough to break the Iron Monger's grip, but it didn't knock the much bulkier armour over.

Stane then replied with another attack. He hit a button on his armour and his jetpack roared into life. He used one hand to direct the flames that were lifting his huge form, the other whipped forward and grabbed Tony by his throat. The duo smashed through the window, sending a rain of shard down into the yard below, and out into the cityscape.

A second blast of repulsor fire got Ironman free once more. The jets built into his boots kicked in and let Ironman hang in the air in front of his foe. They exchanged repulsor fire, but neither seem beatable this way. Worse still, the blasts were effecting Tony more than his foe. That being said, Tony had one major advantage over the Iron Monger, the Ironman armour was much more streamlined and manoeuvrable, coupled with Tony's training with the armour for the week meant he was able to dodge his stronger foe. It was then that the Iron Monger fired one of his missiles. Tony fired a repulsor blast, blowing it up in midair, but he was left open for a right from the Iron Monger. Tony was stunned long enough for Iron Monger to fire his other missile at Tony. It was too close to fire at it. Tony had to dodge it as best as he could. Trouble was it had a heat seeker built in and followed Tony as he moved through the sky. Tony had to think fast. It tried to avoid the missile but he couldn't shake it. The Iron Monger just hung there and watched as Tony tried to escape the inevitable. This gave Tony an idea, he flew straight toward the Iron Monger, turning at just the last possible second, avoiding the Iron Monger's grasp. Iron Monger was snarling at Tony, he did not pay attention to the missile that followed Ironman. The missile didn't turn with Tony, instead it ploughed into the Iron Monger. It shattered the front of the armour. Tony reached out and snatched Stane from the remains of the Iron Monger armour. It took Tony twenty seconds to pin Stane to a building and rush after the plummeting armour. He caught the armour and lifted it back up before it could hit anything below.

Tony returned first the armour and the Stane to Stark Tower. Almost as soon as he touched down the trio of SHIELD agents arrested Stane and the press mobbed Ironman. They were asking him who he was, what he was doing there, what his connection to Stark was. Pepper on the other hand just stood there watching him with grave concern. She knew exactly what Tony Stark would do in those circumstances. He was a showboat, an attention seeker, there was only one way he'd respond and she knew it. He was going to say the one thing he should never say.

"My connection to Stark Industries," Ironman said as he unlocked his faceplate, "I own Stark Industries."

The face plate was removed showing the press and other assembled audience the face underneath.

"I am Tony Stark."

Pepper shook her head and walked out. As soon as she left the room she was met by Natasha Stephens.

"Ms Potts," Natasha smiled. "Am I glad to see you. I saw what Stane did, I take it he's fired now."

"He just tried to kill us," Pepper stated with no shortage of irritation, "of course he's fired."

"Well I was thinking that with Tony just announcing that he is Ironman, you'd probably need me to help manage this. I was Stane's aid but I had no idea he was going to do anything like that, and I did come with the highest recommendation from Bradock Enterprise."

"Look this is a conversation for another day," Pepper told her plainly, "you will still have a position with us, don't know what yet. Let's just get through tonight okay."

With that assurance Natasha headed back to her office while Pepper left the building. As soon as she was out of sight the aid took out her phone and dialed.

"Stane is dealt with," she said, her voice was cold and clinical, "and I am still in Stark's employ."


	4. Origin Spider-man

4\. Marvel 114 Origins

3\. Along Came A Spider

Peter Parker had always thought life was unfair. He lost his parents when he was only a baby, forcing him to live with his aunt and uncle. They brought him up with love, but he always thought there was something missing in his life. Growing up he didn't have many friends, mostly just Harry, the son of his uncle's boss. When Peter was thirteen Harry was sent away to the Fisk Academy, leaving Peter isolated again. Worse still, the star quarterback for his school, Flash Thompson, had decided to make Peter's life hell. Every chance the jock had to harass Peter, Flash did it. From pushing him around in the courtyards of mid-town high to stuffing him into lockers to ruining projects in class. He always seemed to get away with it too, because Flash was the schools best chance of making the play offs.

Still it wasn't all bad for Peter, he still had some interests to occupy him. He loved Science, coming from the comics and books his Uncle Ben would read him. There was one comic that always stuck out in Peter's mind, a vintage one from World War 2. Captain America stopped a rouge Nazi scientist stealing an atomic bomb and blowing up the moon. He knew the plot was corny and hackneyed, even when Ben first read it to him, but he loved it anyway. He even had a blow up of the final panel as an A3 poster on his wall. In it Captain America delivered the moral for the tale, 'with great power must always come great responsibility'. Peter had always promised to live by those words.

As well as his love of science and comics was his love for photography. He always had his camera with him, assuming Flash hadn't taken and hidden it. He had the one on his cell phone, an old polaroid camera, and expensive digital one and a small, lower quality camera for situations he needed a good camera for, but didn't want to risk his best one. This love of, and talent for, photography had led him t working for the school paper. He enjoyed it, there and in the science lab he would get treated like a normal person, even by Sally Avril who was in Flash's clique. She was the school's best gymnast, nearly qualifying for the twenty-twelve olympics at just fourteen, and was proving herself a solid journalistic writer on the school paper. She had started off as the sports reporter but as the students involved changed so did her role.

That was why she and Peter were now at Oscorp, alongside the real press, watching Norman Osborne launch his new project. She wasn't known for her scientific skill, though she wasn't flunking the class, but she was the best writer the school had. They had to send the best they had, it was such a rare privilege to see inside Oscorp. The only reason that they were invited was because of Peter's connection with the firm. His uncle still worked for Oscorp, as a security guard; his best friend (if he ever saw him) was the son of the owner; but the main reason was that Peter's father was once Oscorps best researcher. Norman took the stage to applause and the flashing of cameras, Peter's among everyone else. He held up a hand to silence the crowd.

"Good afternoon," he began, he was confident with a hint of coldness to him, "welcome to Oscorp. For many of you this is your first time here; for most of you it will be the last. Here at Oscorp we don't invite the world in to see what we are doing, we are a business, not a circus. Sometimes however it is good and right to explain what we are doing to the world at large. You see for the last twenty years we have been working with the US government to recreate a Captain America for the modern age."

He waited for the applause to die down before he continued.

"They wanted an army of super soldiers to fight their wars. Now, thanks to the careless behaviour of other groups working on this project, the plug has been pulled within months of making this a possibility. Because of how close we are to success, I have decided to continue the project without the funding originally offered to us, saving jobs, and, eventually, saving lives."

Once again he had to wait for the applause to finish.

"In a few weeks time we will be calling for volunteers to undergo a process that could make you the next hero of this nation. Thank you, that is all."

Norman Osborne began to walk away. No one seemed about to challenge him on any of his statement. Peter looked to Sally to speak up. She shook her head. Osborne was about to vanish through the door to his office when Peter spoke up.

"Mr Osborne," he said, timidly at first, "how can you resurrect a formula already lost for seventy plus years."

Osborne turned to look at the questioner with anger blazing in his eyes. Most journalists knew that if Norman Osborne got challenged on any issue, especially once he had begun to leave the press conference, that person never worked for a paper again. The press gathered to watch Osborne verbally eviscerate the boy that had spoken up. Instead Osborne recognised the boy and instantly his demeanour softened.

"If it isn't Petey Parker," he said with a false warmness, "here with a school paper and still the only one with the guts to speak out. This was once your parents project you know, before their untimely accident, Richard Parker was the most brilliant scientific mind I've ever had the fortune to know. I hear you are quite the science whiz yourself. Why don't you and I discuss this further while the rest of these gutless hacks read up on who your father was."

With that Osborne put an arm around Peter's shoulder and took him with him through the office door.

Beyond the door Peter found himself looking at a massive testing space, three storeys high and as wide as his school hall. People bustled around, some writing in note books, some gathering equipment, others just seemed to be moving urgently. Glass panels showed experiments, other labs, ant farms and many other things. Osborne drew Peter over to a particular window. Beyond it were a selection of cages and cells, each containing different arachnids. Each spider, scorpion, tick and mites was carefully labelled and described, both in terms of what they are and what's been done to them. Peter took out his camera and snapped a photo before Osborn could stop him.

"No pictures in here Petey," Osborne warned, the pretence at warmth was gone.

Peter slipped the phone back in his pocket as Osborne watched him closely. Once he had done so he began explain what they were looking at.

"This is our collection of arachnids, they are curious creatures, extraordinary really. And these are the most extraordinary of the bunch. They have been experimented on and we hope to extract from them a serum that will transfer their incredible skills to a human. We would have succeeded already if your father were still on the project. We currently have three hundred and forty specimen."

"Three hundred and thirty-nine," Peter corrected, "there's a case empty down there."

Peter points to an empty cage three rows up. Osborne saw it and a look of panic crossed his face. He called over the nearest researcher and demanded to know if there had been any change to the project. When he learnt that nothing had happened with them for three days, since Doctor Smythe had exposed them to their weekly dose of radiation, he raged further. Peter was escorted from the lab by Debra Whitman, Oscorp's pretty, young intern. He hardly even got her name before she disappears back inside to help deal with the crisis.

It is then that Peter felt a stinging pain on the back of his hand. Instinctively he drew it up to his face, throwing off the tiny body of a spider. He suddenly felt incredibly dizzy. In this daze he was about to knock on the door and explain what just happened. He knew how deadly a spider bite could be. Before he could however he heard his name being called. He turned to see that Sally was stood there waiting for him.

"There you are," she moaned, "I thought I was getting abandoned. Hey are you okay? You look awful."

"Need some air," Peter gulped.

He reached down and snatched the spider, intent on checking the species and if he needed an anti-venom shot as soon as he could focus his eyes. He took off his glasses, things were already becoming clearer. Once the two students were outside Sally tried to get some answers out of Peter about what had happened beyond the door, but he couldn't answer her. His head was still swimming when they heard the beeping of a horn. It took Peter a little effort but he turned his head to see who it was. His heart sank when he saw Flash and his clique.

"This guy bothering you Sal?" Flash asked as he got out the small car, letting Sally climb in.

"Leave him be," she pleaded, "he's not well."

"Aw," Flash mocked, "is the Puny Parker feeling all bad. Have you been outside too long talking to real people."

"I'm not in the mood," Peter stated, as his adrenalin increased he started to feel better, "go away."

"You've got some nerve Puny Parker," Flash continued to goad, "trying to tell the star quarterback what to do."

He grabbed Peter by his collar and tried to throw him over. Peter didn't move. It was like he was routed to the ground. Flash looked confused for a moment but the fear of loosing face instead led him to throwing a punch. Peter felt a buzzing in his now clear head just before the punch was thrown. He leant back avoiding the strike. He did the same with the second and third attempts too. Finally Peter reached out and pushed Flash away, sending him tumbling toward his car looking shocked.

"I said go away," Peter repeated as he turned and walked away.

"Whoever thought Puny Parker could be so manly," Liz Allan giggled as she, and the rest of Flash's group watched him walk away.

As he walked the rest of the way home Peter felt energised in a way he hadn't ever before in his life. He was so distracted by it that he stepped out into the road without looking. Instantly that buzzing in his head came again, warning him of danger. He darted backward, away from an oncoming car. When he moved though it wasn't the normal clumsy movements he normally made. Instead he rolled away with poise and grace he had never had before. Most shockingly to him however was where he ended up. He was against the wall of a gym, about a foot off the ground. His hands and feet seemed to be stuck to it, even through his shoes. He wasn't high enough that it looked too unnatural to the New Yorkers hustling by, paying him no attention, but he was high enough to read the advert in the window beside him. It was advertising a special event with wrestler and MMA star Crusher Hogan. It read that anyone who can last three minutes in the ring with him would win five hundred dollars.

This stayed on his mind the rest of the way home, he couldn't believe he was thinking about getting in the ring. He kissed his aunt as soon as he got in. She told him that Uncle Ben would be late, there had been an emergency at Oscorp. Peter didn't want to tell her that he'd been the cause, so instead made his excuses and headed up to his room. He spent the next few hours practicing his new found skills, climbing the walls, flipping around, even testing his surprising strength. He was then called down for dinner.

Ben had arrived home by this point, but he didn't want to talk about work. All he would say was it had been a waste of time. Peter felt bad. He knew the creature that was being searched for was dead and in his coat pocket upstairs but he couldn't admit to it, nor to the strange changes that were coming over him since the spider had bitten him. Instead he talked abut how well the trip with the school paper had gone. Sally had already emailed him a copy of the article so he could check her science on it.

"She seems a nice girl," Ben suggested with a slight nudge to Peter's elbow.

"She's alright I guess," Peter replied noncommitally, he hated when his uncle tried to tease him about his love life, or lack there of.

"Why not invite her over, me and May could pop out for the night, cook her a nice meal, chat about stuff, you know how the rest goes."

"Ben Parker," May admonished, "Peter doesn't need you interfering like this, especially when you weren't exactly a Romeo yourself."

"It's okay," Peter lied, "I don't mind. Besides she's part of Flash's crowd, she'd never accept the invite anyway."

"You never know if you don't try Petey," Ben advised, "you're a good looking lad, you're smart, you'll make some lucky girl very happy someday. If she can't see that, well that's her loss."

Peter smiled at that. It wasn't the first time Ben had made that speech, Peter knew it wouldn't be the last, but, as corny as it was, it always made Peter feel better. He began thinking that between his family and his new powers, maybe things were starting to look good for him.

Over the next few days Peter practiced with his powers every chance he had. He didn't let it interfere with his school work or his photography for the paper, they were still important to him, but he now had an urgency about him when the school bell rang. He even managed to lessen his time being taunted by Flash. He had been slightly disappointed when he discovered that he couldn't spin his own webs, though given that most spider's produced their silk out of their backside he wondered if that wasn't a mercy. He began researching online how he could make his own. That project had to wait however as it was now the time for him to face Crusher Hogan.

Peter was given the lift to the gym by his uncle, telling him that he wanted to watch the show. Part of that delighted Ben, thinking Peter was finally taking an interest in sports, but worrying him as well because it was so out of character. He asked one last time if Peter wanted him to stay, but he refused again. Ben caught a glimpse of Sally and suddenly everything made sense to him, he gave Peter a pat on the back and just about pushed him out the car. Peter exited the vehicle and came face to face with Sally.

"Peter?" she said surprised to see him, "what are you doing here?"

"Me," Peter stammered, trying to think of a good excuse, "I came to see Cruncher Hogan, I'm a big fan of the MMA."

"It's Crusher Hogan," Sally corrected in a kindly manner, "and it's just MMA, not the MMA."

"Right, just testing," Peter cursed himself under his breath, "what are you doing here anyway? I thought the paper sent someone else to cover this."

"They did," she admitted, "but Flash is entering, we all came to cheer him on."

"We all? Is his whole gang here?"

"No need to sound so worried Pete," Sally assured, "they're all good guys really. You can stand with us if you like."

This felt like a good time to excuse himself.

"I'd better not," Peter smiled sadly, "wouldn't want Flash thinking you lot were going soft on me."

Sally seemed genuinely disappointed, but she quickly got over it and went to find her friends. Peter meanwhile ducked into the merchandise store that had been set up beside the entrance. He cursed his Parker luck. How could he go out against Crusher Hogan with Flash there. If he didn't win Flash would taunt him about it and if he did Flash would try to out muscle him even more to prove he was better than both of them. It was then the answer presented itself to Peter. He found himself stood in front of a stand full of Mexican wrestling masks. Peter figured he could wear one of them and no one would know who he was. He picked a red mask with black trim, it reminded Peter of a spider's web, bought it and headed inside.

Peter watched the action from the sideline, mask on at all times, Flash sat next to him. It was the longest he'd ever been around Flash without a confrontation. As the line in front of them slowly diminished Flash was getting more and more nervous. Peter found himself having sympathy with the man that hated him. He tried to put it out of his head and concentrate on the six foot ten mountain of muscle in the steel cage. Hogan seemed to have three strategies for dealing with his foes. The scrawny ones that were no threat were dispatched quickly with solid strikes, he wouldn't waste his time on them. The ones that looked halfway decent but weren't really a threat were given a chance to try but then overwhelmed, still they could look good and seem like worthy opponents for a little time. Finally when someone entered the cage he was less confident of fighting Hogan struck as they climbed in, usually with a headbutt to knock them out. Finally it was Flash's turn to get in the cage with Hogan. Flash sighed as he stood up. He looked like a lamb on his way to the slaughter. Peter reached out and caught his arm. Flash looked back to him.

"You can do this," Peter said then he repeated the words his uncle told him whenever Peter was feeling down, "this is your world, everyone else just happens to be in it. You can either turn away and give the world up or go in there and take it all. Choice is yours."

"Thanks man," Flash smiled, he seemed to be feeling more confident already.

Peter's heart sank as Flash began playing to the crowd as he walked to the cage, if Flash won he'd be unbearable at school Peter thought. He didn't need to worry. Flash was big and rough looking, he also had a swagger to him, Hogan butted him as he was climbing in the cage. Flash was knocked out. Then it was Peter's turn. He had to wait while Flash was revived and helped out. They passed as Peter walked to the cage. Flash reached out to Peter and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Good luck buddy," Flash encouraged as he was helped away.

Peter was skinny, abut a foot shorter than Hogan and not particularly dressed for a fight in his slacks and white shirt. Hogan didn't attack him as he climbed in. The assault did come quickly though. Hogan swung a right hand at him. Peter's danger sense, what he was calling his spider sense, warned him and he leaned away from the strike. A high kick came next but Peter rolled under it. Hogan looked angrily at him. Hogan had fought gymnasts before, he hated it, but he knew how to deal with them. He swung his leg looking to sweep Peter's out from under him. Peter backflipped away. Rather than land on the floor Peter landed on and stuck to the cage wall. The crowd gasped at this agility. Peter leapt toward Crusher Hogan, catching him with a right hand. It was only a glancing blow but it was enough to stagger Hogan back. Hogan tried retaliating with a right of his own but Peter caught his arm in his. Peter then placed his hand on Hogan's chest and picked him up. The crowd applauded once again. This turned into cheers when Peter let go of Hogan's arm and held his foe above him one handed. Peter then walked over to the cage wall, still carrying the screaming Hogan, and began to climb it. He easily reached the top and came down the other side depositing Hogan safely on the gym's floor before climbing back into the cage. Hogan rushed away from the cage and back into the locker room where he'd be safe. The promoter then entered the cage with a microphone.

"When I came here tonight," the slick snake oil salesman, named Quentin Beck barked, "I said no mortal man could beat Crusher Hogan. I stand by that claim. So many came and fell to Hogan's strength and skill. Then one plucky lad showed us how Hogan was still just a mortal man himself. For this ladies and gentlemen is no mortal man. You saw what he could do in this cage. He is no mortal man, he is the Spider-man, no more than that, he is the amazing Spider-man. Give it up for him ladies and gentlemen."

The promoter then lowered the microphone, letting the applause wash over them, before leaning to Peter.

"Stick with me kid," he crooned, "I'll make you a star. And I like the mask, hang on to it."

The next morning Peter excitedly read the papers, expecting to have made big headlines. He was disappointed with what he found. The Daily Bugle had four lines about him buried in the middle of the sports pages, that was the best he found in any of the papers. Online he found little more, including people accusing him of being a fake on twitter. His school paper covered the fight in the most detail, including a big picture of Flash Thompson and a tiny one of him. He was so disappointed by this that he even rang up Beck who was now representing Spider-man.

"Never read your press kiddo," Beck told him, "they'll only try to pull you down. So you're not the headlines today, that just means you won't be yesterday's news tomorrow. I've got a photo shoot arranged for you on Saturday. If you've got a suit to go with that mask, bring it then, makes a good gimmick."

Before Peter could say another word Beck had hung up on him. Still Peter felt a little better. Not as good as he felt after one of Uncle Ben's speeches, but better. He considered tell his aunt and uncle what had happened, but he wasn't ready yet. Instead he just enjoyed his Sunday with them. He knew he wouldn't see them much for the rest of the week.

Over the next few days Peter stayed very busy. Between his studies, work for the student paper and practicing his spider skills, Peter had begun working on a full costume and was refining a formula for webbing he found online. For his costume he'd spent half his winnings on a pro wrestling spandex bodysuit, gloves and boots, he was even customising them himself. Finally on the Friday night he had refined the webbing to fit into wrist dispensers that he called web shooters, they fit well under his suit. He had to admit he loved how the suit had turned out.

"Not bad for a guy who never took a sewing class," he quipped to himself.

He spent the night practicing with his webbing so he could get some good photos with it the next day. He'd made it so the webbing would dissolve in an hour so he didn't even need to worry abut cleaning it up. It wasn't long until he could create lines he could hang from, he even could swing from them, as well snaring items or cocoon them in his strands. Finally when he was happy with it he went to bed to rest up for the big day.

The next morning Peter walked with a confidence Ben and May had never seen in the youngster. He laughed and joked with them as he ate his breakfast. Everything was jovial until Ben asked if Peter was ready.

"Ready?" Peter asked suddenly worried and confused, "ready for what?"

"It's our big fishing trip," Ben reminded him, "we've been planning it for months."

"That was this weekend? I'm sorry I didn't realise."

"That's okay Petey," Ben smiled, "I've got everything packed."

"I've even done us a picnic," May added.

"It's just that I kinda made plans for today," Peter explained, feeling terrible about it.

"Is it this Sally girl?" Ben asked.

Peter wouldn't meet his eye. Ben took that to mean it was.

"Don't worry about it Petey," Ben grinned, "they'll be other weekends, me and Aunt May will have a picnic in the house."

"You should go anyway," Peter urged.

"We've got plenty to do round the house," May pointed out, "I might finally get Ben to start on his chores."

"Go on, enjoy yourself."

Peter didn't need telling twice, he was quickly out the door and running down the street, his bag slung over his shoulders. He stopped off in a public toilet near the gym to change, he figured he should arrive in costume and people seeing him might cause a buzz about him. It wasn't a glamorous place to change, but at least the cubicle offered some privacy.

As he was leaving he heard raised voices and turned in time to see a cop chasing a man toward him. Peter's powers gave him the chance to assess the man as he came toward him. He was no taller than Peter with dirty blond hair and a purse in his hand. Peter stepped back to let the chase pass by before firing off a webline and swinging on to his appointment.

Beck was impressed with his new client's look. He promised that the Spider-man mask would be plastered on billboards up and down the country. Over the next three hours the duo took photos and videos of Spider-man doing incredible things. He performed leaps and feats of strength, often together, that no normal man could do. They even filmed a fight against a pair of boxers. Peter easily won.

Once this was all finished Beck handed Spider-Man a fifty as an advance on the money they'd make and sent him on his way. Peter quickly changed back into his civvies in the same toilet he'd used before and decided he'd treat himself to a meal in the city before heading home.

When he finally did return home he was shocked to find an ambulance and two police cars outside. He saw his aunt being attended to by a paramedic but he couldn't see Ben. He rushed forward to try and find out what had happened. One of the cops, his badge read Stacey, stopped him. Peter began demanding to know what was going on.

"Are you Peter?" Stacey asked kindly.

When Peter told him that he was Captain Stacey took him to his car so he could have a seat while everything was explained.

"There was a burglar," Stacey revealed, "he broke in to your home. I think he thought the house would be empty. It wasn't and your uncle confronted him. The burglar had a gun. I'm sorry."

Tears trailed down Peter's face. It was then that the radio crackled to life.

"Suspect is cornered in the Oscorp warehouse on pier four," came the staticy voice.

"Is that the man that killed my uncle?" Peter demanded.

"He will face justice," Stacey told him, "don't do anything foolish. There's nothing you can do."

Peter climbed from the car and ran off. Stacey tried to follow but he didn't think to look for Peter on the rooftops so quickly lost him. As he quickly traversed the rooftops he began to change. First on when then spandex body suit, then the gloves and the boots and finally the mask. Soon Spider-man was heading for the docks. Peter knew that Captain Stacey was right, there was nothing Peter Parker could do. He was just a normal man. Peter Parker wasn't all he was anymore. Now he was more than a normal man, he was Spider-man.

It wasn't long until Spider-man was in the warehouse. He stayed in the shadows, avoiding the cameras that monitored the building, until he could see the figure of the man that had killed his uncle. Spider-man watched him with hatred in his eyes. The thug was on the phone he was demanding help but it didn't seem forthcoming.

"If you don't I'll tell them you paid me," the thug called out.

Before an answer could come the phone was plucked from his hand by a webline. Peter crushed the phone. The thug looked round him, spooked by the loss of his phone. Spider-man stayed in the shadows so the thug couldn't see him. He waved his gun wildly until a second webline was fired and the gun was gunged up.

"You killed a good man," Spider-man called out, "give me one good reason I should let you live?"

"It's not my fault," the thug answered back in a panic, "the old man surprised me. I was just meant to find some spider. I didn't want to hurt anyone. I promise I'll tell the cops everything."

With that Spider-man dropped from the ceiling and simply hit the thug across the jaw, knocking him out. It is then that Peter realised with horror who the thug was. He recognised the dirty blond hair, it was the purse-snatcher he hadn't stopped that morning. Peter's anger gave way to tears again as he webbed the thug up. He pinned a note to the thug that read 'courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man and lowered him out the warehouse. He was just leaving, heading back to his aunt, when he heard a shot. He returned to discover the thug he'd handed in had been shot.

He quickly worked out the direction of the shot and found the snipers nest. A note waited for him. 'Thanks for the help' it read but Peter didn't care. All he was thinking about was how his selfishness and lack of responsibility had led to the death of his uncle. Peter swore off his quest for fame there and then, promising his uncle that he'd live up to the words the two of them had hung on Peter's wall. With great power must always come great responsibility.


	5. Origin Thor

5\. Origin Thor

4\. Sound of Thunder

Dr Donald Blake had always considered himself a good man. He had overcome his physical limitations, namely of being lame in his left leg, trained hard and become a doctor. Not just any doctor but the second most respected surgeon after the legendary, and now missing, Stephen Strange. He had worked in some of the biggest hospitals in the USA, from coast to coast, and saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. He admitted he'd bent the rules sometimes. He used slots freed up by unforeseen circumstances to operate on those that could not afford the fees the hospital charged. When he got caught doing this he knew he faced disciplinary action. He went in to the internal inquiry intent to defend his actions as being the right thing to do. He expected the board to see things his way. To understand why he did what he did. He was saving lives. He did not expect them to ignore his words, his intentions and his arguments simply because of how much he had cost the hospital. He had only wanted to help people. They seemed to only want t help themselves. He expected to be fined, suspended even. He did not expect to be made so angry that he quit. He also didn't expect a white heard man with an eyepatch and a thick beard to approach him after the trial with an offer.

"I am sponsoring a research trip to Norway," he explained, "we need a medical man."

"Sorry," Donald responded, "I'm not interested in some money grab."

"You're angry, I know that, but this is a special trip into the new caves discovered after the earth tremors there. No mortal man has set foot in those caves in ten thousand years at least. The chance to uncover the history of the place will be incredible. I cannot send the party out their without a physician though. I only work with people of integrity. I want you."

Dr Blake had to admit he was intrigued. This was something he'd never done, field research could be fascinating. He tried to learn more about the man in front of him but all he got was his name, Robert Wednesday, and a promise that he would receive an email with more information.

When the email came through Donald had calmed down and was realising he would soon reach the point of needing employment. Wednesday's terms were generous, and the renowned archaeologist Jane Foster would make good company, he had admired her work greatly. He decided he'd sign up. It was only a two month excursion, he could last that long, it would almost be like a holiday, he thought.

It turned out to be anything but a holiday though. The weather was the worst he had ever seen, blizzards, snow drifts and thick ice seemed to block their path at every turn. Worse still his three companions seemed to resent him. Jane Foster was bold, wanting to move on even in the most dire circumstances, she didn't like a stranger on her team, especially one that seemed to be slowing them up. Darcy Lewis, Jane's assistant, seemed to have no scientific or archeological background at all, she spent her time making coffee and cracking jokes, often at Donald's expense. Erik Selvig, Jane's main researcher and former mentor, seemed to be very much into his Norse mythos and had taken it as a personal slight that Donald knew nothing abut it. It wasn't easy being the odd man out in the quartet.

The eight week stay was almost over, they hadn't found much of interest. Jane was insisting it was more a place for geologists rather than archaeologist. They had found some runes carved into some stones, mostly warning people not to enter, but they hadn't found any dangers beyond any other cave in the area. The echolocation equipment they had been using, on loan from Braddock Enterprise, told them a large cavern was not far ahead of where they were camping for the night. They were going to make one last push for it the next day and if nothing came of it they would have no choice but to turn back.

"Maybe we should just go as a trio," Darcy suggested, "without Don One-Leg slowing us up."

"The ice has been getting more treacherous," Donald reminded, "me being there or not could be the difference between you staying alive or dying if you get hurt."

"I hate to admit it," Jane said slightly dejectedly, "but he's right. We load him into the sled and keep moving. I think a major discovery is just ahead and I don't want anyone getting killed on the way there."

"You could be right," Erik piped up as he finished translating the latest runes the group had encountered.

"What is it?" Donald asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Erik's eyes moved from Donald to Jane, waiting for her to give permission to continue. She gave a slight nod. She didn't need to prove she was in charge, she would give Donald this one, that Erik turned to her showed who had the power in the group.

"The other warning was leading up to this one," Erik explained, "it talks about a battle, the Gods lost, they were betrayed. The battleground was sealed by Odin himself, only to open when Thor was ready to rise again. It says there are Frost Giants down here."

"Do we believe in Frost Giants?" Jane asked, with hardly any doubt abut the answer.

"No," Erik sighed.

"Still," Jane pondered, "if we find the battlefield of the Gods, that will be something. At least a little more time down here. We head into the arena tomorrow."

"The warnings all point to that being a mistake," Erik warned.

"Only if you believe in Frost Giants," Darcy moaned.

"In these conditions I might," Donald agreed.

"You don't have to come."

"Enough," Jane interrupted, "I'm tired of the bickering. Let's get some rest and pick this up in the morning."

Somewhat reluctantly all four of the adventurers returned to their tents and tried to sleep. None of them slept well. Jane had struggled to sleep deeply since a fellow explorer attacked her a few years previous. She still carried the scar of that attack on the inside of her thigh, only Erik knew abut that however. He had saved her life. Now she was ready for anything, or at least that's what she believed, but even with a gun under her pillow she didn't sleep deeply.

Erik struggled to sleep because of a mixture of excitement about what they might discover the next day and concern over the curse. He was a man of science he didn't want to admit to believing in elves, Gods and giants, but something in the back of his mind believed it. He wondered if it was some race memory, he was of Scandawegian stock, but even then it meant believing that the creatures had once existed. Still thoughts of the next day and the implications of that, for him and the world, kept him from having a restful night.

Donald hadn't expected to struggle to sleep, no more than normal anyway. His leg was a constant ache that had always made sleep difficult, the cold didn't help. Neither did the strange surroundings or the disregard from his companions. It was worse that night though. He was visited by strange dreams. It was like he was at the battle Erik had talked about. He could hear the sounds of battle round him, smell the adrenalin in the air. He wasn't a bystander in the fight, he was a warrior. He felt himself strike at the much larger, stronger foe. He expected the foe to fall, but he didn't. He woke with a start as, in his dream he was slammed to the ground by a creature. It was a scream that woke him.

The scream had come from Darcy's tent. She had had no trouble sleeping. She had always trumpeted the fact she could fall asleep anywhere, especially in lectures. She joked that's why she'd ended up in the band of misfits she was with. That was why she never heard it coming. The others were quickly out of their tents to find out what the ruckus was. They were perturbed to discover Darcy's tent was ripped to shreds and she was nowhere to be found. Worse still was the only clue they had. A trail of gigantic footprints that led toward the cavern the group had been heading for.

"So much for heading out there in the morning," Jane stated plainly, pulling on her small backpack of supplies and slotting her drawn gun into her belt.

"We can't go now," Erik stuttered, "can't you see that footprint, it was a Frost Giant, we have to get away. Bring back an army when we're safe maybe, but right now..."

"Right now Darcy needs us," Donald said in a deadpan fashion.

He was loading his medical supplies onto the powered sled.

"I'm not sure you should come Dr Blake," Jane told him.

"You will need me," Donald argued back, "who knows what state Darcy will be in."

"We don't have time to argue."

"No we don't, I'm coming."

"You're both mad," Erik shook his head.

"You don't have to come," Donald responded, "I'm a doctor, I save lives."

With that the low powered engine set off, taking Donald in the direction of the footprints. Jane watched him go for a moment, admiring his spirit for the first time that trip. She then turned back to Erik, she had been surprised by his behaviour.

"Go," she said as kindly as she could manage, "get help if you can. We can handle this."

She then ran off in the same direction as Blake. For a moment Erik thought about chasing them. That thought didn't last long. He ran off in the opposite direction. He didn't get far when the ice cracked below him and he slid away from the main path into another large cavern.

When Jane caught up with Donald he was at the mouth of the cavern staring in. He had made sure he was undercover. He looked deeply concerned. When Jane looked through the entrance she saw why he was so worried.

"That's impossible," Jane mouthed.

"And yet," Donald responded, just as in awe as Jane was, "it is there."

Inside the cavern was a creature that seemed to be fashioned from ice. It stood over twelve feet tall and was thick set like a weightlifter. White furs lined it's legs. It's face was as monstrous as the rest of the creature, it had deep black eyes and a gaping hole for a mouth. Just beyond it, Darcy was trapped in a cage made of icicles. There was no way in or out. She was complaining loudly at the monster that had taken her.

"You've made a mistake here buster," she blustered, "I'm an American citizen. If you don't let me go you'll really be in for it. Things are going to get so hot for you that you'll just melt away."

The Ice Giant grunted at her loudly to try and shut her up.

"I think she may have met her match as a conversationalist," Jane smiled at Donald.

This is the first time that she'd smiled at him since they'd met. Donald couldn't help but smile back. He quickly stopped smiling when he realised Jane's plan. She drew her pistol and jumped into the cavern already shooting. The creature took the brunt of the full clip the handgun held. It didn't even stagger back. Jane could see the bullet holes in the creature as it walked toward her. She wanted to dive to the side but she was too awestruck to move. The Frost Giant raised a fist above it's head ready to crush her. It would have as well if not for Donald Blake. He dived in as best he could and dragged her aside. The fist left a creator in the ice beneath them.

"Maybe we try a softer approach," Donald stated before turning to confront the monster. "Now then big fella, I know you're angry, but you don't need to act out on us. If you think we're trespassing on your home then I'm sorry. If you want us to leave we will. We don't mean you any harm, any of us. We simply want our friend back and then we will let you be."

The Frost Giant seemed to hesitate. It looked down at Donald. It then stepped back and bowed it's head. Donald released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Jane was amazed that he had talked the monster down. The Frost Giant then moved with incredible speed and power. It's left hand swung forward. Donald was picked from the ground and tossed through an archway by the blow. Both Jane and Darcy's eyes widened at this attack.

"Well that answer's the old question about the one legged man in an ass-kicking contest," Darcy joked, trying to hide her fear for the situation she was now in.

Jane had used the distraction that Donald had provided to reload her gun. This time she fired a carefully aimed shot at the monster's head. The shot tore through the centre of the creature's forehead and out the other aside. This injury stopped the Frost Giant in it's tracks for a moment. It then roared and advanced on Jane once more. This time she wasn't too awe-stricken not to move. She dodged through the ice pillars that lined the chamber.

Donald had passed out thanks to the impact of the Frost Giant's fist, but when he awoke he was amazed at how injured he wasn't. He had had the good fortune to land in a thick drift f snow that had fallen into the cavern through a small chamber that ran like a chimney up to the top of the mountain. He was still sore from the strike but he could still stand. He looked round the new cave he was in. It was a simple, small space covered in snow and ice. It was much like the other caves he'd been dragged round over the last two months. The only thing that set it apart from the others was the ornately carved column that was at the end of it. The column had been fashioned from a rich stone and was clearly there to display the hammer that rested on it. Runes lined the head of the hammer but they seemed to translate for Donald as he stared at them.

'Only those that are worthy may wield Mjolnir' the runes read.

Donald didn't know what it would mean to be worthy, but he knew that he needed something to stop the monster made of ice. He reached out and took hold of the hammer. Lightning seemed to flash in Donald's mind and thunder rumbled round the caves. The Frost Giant was distracted by this, giving Jane the chance to slip passed the monster and to the edge of Darcy's cell.

Down in the side cave that Erik had found himself in the thunder was heard as well. Erik didn't look round though. He was too busy looking at the form of a man appearing in chains on the front of the boulder housed in the cave. The man had unkempt and straggly dark hair that hung over his bearded face. He was only slight in frame, but he seemed to have a strength to him. His eyes seemed to sparkle. He was clad in green armour. He looked up at Erik, chilling the scientist to his bones.

"He's back," the figure grinned darkly before snapping the chains that held him.

Donald was no longer stood in the cave. In the place of the weak and lame man stood the large form of Thor. He wore his rich blue Asgardian armour with the flowing red cape and Mjolnir still in hand. He was built for battle, with muscles upon muscles, and stood at an impressive height. The most remarkable thing about him though was his mind. Images of Asgard were in there, along with images of others he had known there, he remembered fragments of his last battle, but despite all that Doctor Donald Blake was still in control of the might form. He looked himself over in the frozen mirror formed of ice. He couldn't believe what he saw once again. He had a lantern jaw, rich flowing locks, he was everything he had ever wanted to be. He was taken from this enraptured admiration when he heard another shot. He spun his hammer lifting him from the ground.

Jane was still beside Darcy. She had fired at the ice spire holding Darcy prisoner. The bullet was embedded in the stalagmite but Darcy was no closer to being free. The biggest the effect that Jane could see from the effort was bringing the Frost Giant's attention back to her. It was closing in on the two trapped women. Jane could see no way out this time.

"I'm sorry I got you mixed up in this," Jane apologised as she pointed her worthless weapon at the monster.

"Don't talk crazy," Darcy comforted, "we've had some incredible times, I wouldn't have missed it. Just wish it could have ended somewhere warmer."

The two women share a scared smile as the Frost Giant roars in front of them again. Jane closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. What came instead was a powerful voice that sounded full of thunder.

"I SAY THEE NAY GIANT," the voice boomed.

She opened her eyes to see the god that had spoken those words. He hung in midair spinning his hammer. A swing of his arm and the weapon was released. It flung forward and struck the Frost Giant. The monster reacted to this attack. He was lifted up and thrown back into the cavern wall. The hammer returned to Thor's hand. A broad smile crossed his face. The smile didn't dim, even as the Frost Giant got back up. Jane could see a massive dent had been knocked into the creatures chest. Thor threw his hammer once again, this time hitting the monster in the shoulder. The shoulder shattered and the remains of it's arm fell to the ground. The creature bawled at Thor as he caught his hammer once more.

"Had enough?" Thor asked cockily.

With it's one good arm the Frost Giant lashed out. It struck Thor solidly, knocking him backward through a couple of the icy pillars. It took the god a moment to regain his feet.

"I guess not," Thor still sounded confident. "I gave you the choice, remember that."

The Frost Giant was stalking toward Thor, ready to continue it's assault. Much to Jane's surprise Thor didn't move away from the advancing monster. Rather he stepped toward it, swinging his hammer as he did so. She wondered if the god meant to hit the monster with it. He didn't swing the weapon at the monster. He simply stopped spinning it as he moved under the creature. He thrust it high over his head, holding it there triumphantly. A moment later and a loud crackling could be heard above them. Jane glanced up and saw they were stood under a large opening that led out to the mountain once more. She saw the chimney just before it was flooded by a powerful bolt of lightning. The fork of electric power thundered down and into the chamber, passing through the Frost Giant and feeding into the hammer. When the lightning faded the Frost Giant had splintered and cracked to the point it was no longer possible to tell it had ever been in the form of a man. The fragments that remained were quickly melting away. Thor simply and cockily holstered his weapon.

"Who are you?" Jane demanded, "what are you."

Thor simply smiled brightly at the archaeologist/adventurer before walking passed her and freeing Darcy from her icy prison. He simply reached out and snapped the spikes that held her like they were breadsticks. He then returned to Jane and bowed his head for a moment out of respect.

"I am Thor Odinson," he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "the God of Thunder. I have saved your fallen companion. He shall meet you once you have left this place."

"I'm not leaving," Jane told him plainly, "I'm here t find out what this place is and I'm not leaving until I find out."

Thor simply picked her up in one arm and used his hammer to fly her out of the tunnels. He placed her gently down in the jeep that was awaiting their return. She complained at him the entire way. He then quickly flew back in for Darcy. She did not complain about travelling in that style. She was also more than happy to leave the mountain. As soon as Thor was sure no one else remained in the mountain he swung his hammer at the opening. It became sealed by a ton of stone.

"You're crazy," Jane exclaimed at him, "we still had all our gear in there."

"It is only possession," Thor counselled smugly, "they can be replaced."

"Mr Thor, God of Thunder, sir," stammered Darcy, "our friend Erik was still inside."

"I saw no other," Thor answered kindly, "perhaps he escaped before the Frost Giant attacked. Now I must go. I will return when the world has need of me."

"Wait," Jane protested.

Thor turned, expecting a thank you. What he got was a slap in the face. He smiled at this. The Donald Blake side of his mind had known she wanted to do that to him ever since he joined her team. The Thor side of his mind admired her spirit. He bowed his head graciously and took off flying once more.

He didn't go far, landing in a remote area of the mountain. He knew no one was around to see him. He held up his hammer once more, calling on the powers of the lightning. A flash of St Elmo's fire and where Thor had once stood now stood a weak and crippled man by the name of Donald Blake. Donald held in his hand a shaft of wood that had moments before been the mighty Mjolnir. He staggered from the rubble using his new cane to help him until he came into sight of the two women he'd been on this adventure with. Both seemed glad to see him.

"What happened?" Jane asked calmly.

"Yeah did Goldilocks really save you?" Darcy added.

"Goldilocks?" Donald was confused.

"You know Thor, he of the thick and luxurious blond hair."

"Yes," Donald admitted, "he saved me, whoever he was, lifted me out of the tunnels and left me to climb down on my own."

"Yeah he can be a jerk," Darcy nodded, "but he looked good in that armour."

"Maybe we don't mention him or the Frost Giant," Jane suggested, "just tell Wednesday we couldn't find anything and that we were lucky to escape a landslide. Besides I have word we might be needed in Egypt, there's talk of them finding the tomb of En Sabah Nur. I'm sure they could use another trio on it."

"A trio?" Donald asked through raised eyebrows.

"She's saying you proved yourself one of us today doc," Darcy explained, "if you want in that is."

Donald Blake smiled.


	6. Origin Fantastic Four

6\. Origins - Fantastic Four

5 Call the four

Reed raised his hand to silence the crowd of reporters gathered round the front of the Baxter Building. They were asking him questions about his planned space flight that had been postponed the month before. Reed had been, along with others with grants from the Storm Foundation, had been studying a strange electromagnetic anomaly near the Earth's orbit. It had been Reed's intent to take a ship up t study these so called cosmic rays at close range. He just hadn't been able to fit a working craft with enough protection. He still hadn't but the board were going to cut his funding if he didn't produce something soon. He knew the former Russian kosmonaut Ivan Kragoff would take the money Reed lost and he knew Kragoff was not as rigorous with health and safety as Reed was. Still with time running out, Reed had to hope that the protection would be enough now as he nervously faced the press.

"I am pleased to announce that in ten days time the rocket Excelsior will take me and my team to the stars," Reed explained nervously, "after many false starts we are finally ready to reach out and look at the cosmic rays in a way never before done. Thank you."

With that, and to a barrage of questions, Reed turned around and walked back inside. The Storm Foundation's PR team then took over filtering questions and giving what answers they could.

Back inside Reed quickly returned to where he felt the most comfortable, his lab. It took up much of the top floor of the building and consisted of half finished projects, robotic drones and incredibly dangerous items. They all seemed to be discarded in a haphazard manner that left no impression of which was which. Reed continued to look over the plans for Excelsior, this had become his obsession. So much so that he didn't hear the doors open behind him and his two closest companions walk in.

"Saw you on TV egghead," Ben Grimm smirked, "the camera just loves you. Shame you don't give it chance to."

Ben and Reed had been best friends since college when they were thrown together as roommates. Even after Reed moved into a frat house with his science buddies, Ben and Reed stayed close despite their different interests. Reed got Ben to think more while Ben convinced Reed to exercise more and enjoy interests outside of science. This did lead to Reed trying out for the football team, but they don't talk about that was thanks in part to Reed's inspiration, and his desire to escape his more troubled roots, that led to Ben becoming a highly regarded test pilot and a fully trained astronaut.

"Don't tease him," the young lady beside Ben sniggered.

She was Susan Storm, heir to the Storm Foundation alongside her brother, though the board still has controlling interest in the company. Her father had built the company from scratch, giving Sue and her brother Johnny a good lifestyle growing up, but it had led to them being left with nannies most of the time. When their parents died in a plane crash Sue and Johnny didn't cry, they hardly knew them, they couldn't cry over strangers. Sue had always been mature for her years, but with the death of her parents she grew up even more, looking after her brother and attending board meetings despite only being sixteen. Now she was twenty-five and a skilled business woman with a degree from Yale, helped run one of the biggest companies in America and dated the companies number one scientist; Reed Richards. To the world she was a rising star. It had surprised no one when she had declared that when Reed's project went into space, she would be going with it.

The trio, along with Reed's super computer HERBIE, made up the group heading for space. At least that was the plan. Things were about to change with a phone call Sue suddenly received. It was from her brother's school, or rather his former school. This was the fourth he'd been expelled from that month. She listened to the stories, from relativly minor things like sneaking into the girls dorms and skipping classes, to more major things like crashing his car into the school's pool and fighting with Shinobi Shaw and his clique. Sue was sure that for every story she was told another hundred had never been found out. She tried to agree to pick him up but was told that he'd already left, taking Shaw's monogramed motorcycle.

"I'm going to kill him," Sue snarled as she hung up the phone.

"Is Johnny acting out again," Reed said, almost chuckling.

"Acting out," Sue responded, not noticing how bemused Reed seemed, "he's been kicked out. Worse still he's stolen a motorbike and now no one knows where he is."

"On the plus side," Ben smirked, "if he's missing he's not causing trouble for us."

Before Sue could reprimand her boyfriend's best friend for mocking her brother, the doors of the lab burst open and a metallic purple motorbike rolled in. A blond teenager, he was eighteen-years-old, in expensive shades sat on it. He was grinning inanely. Ben rolled his eyes.

"Hi sis," Johnny smirked, "did you miss me."

"Miss you," Sue raged at him, "I'd like the chance to miss you, if you could manage a full semester at a school I might miss you."

"The school rang then," was his only reply.

"I despair," Sue continued, "if our parents were here to see you try to drag our family name through the mud what would they say?"

"You always manage to smooth it over with the press."

"Because we can move the conversation on, talk about Reed's plans or even my social life. You've dragged me into your circus of celebrity. I'm just glad this Spider-man and Tony are taking away your spotlight."

"You enjoy the coverage too."

"Excuse me?"

"I've seen that picture you've got on your wall, the one with you and Janet Van Dyne."

"That was for a charity calendar," Sue was suddenly feeling embarrassed.

Reed could see how Sue was struggling, and how angry she may be about to get. Ben did too, but he was enjoying the scene he knew the tabloids had always wanted to see. Reed decided he should step in.

"Why don't I have a word with him," Reed suggested.

"Fine," Sue fumed, "hopefully you can talk some sense into his thick head."

Reed put his hand round Johnny's shoulders, guiding him away from the scene. He began talking t him as soon as he was sure the others were out of hearing range. He had decided to use the good cop approach.

"You know Sue's just worried for you," Reed said as kindly as he could, "we all are."

"She's just worried about the stupid family name," Johnny sulkily retorted, though he did already seem calmer.

"It's not that," Reed assured him, "she has seen what fame can do to some families, she doesn't want that to happen with you two. Getting kicked out of too many schools can mark you for life, so can steeling bikes."

"Shaw deserved it."

"I'm sure he did, but it doesn't make it right. You're a smart kid Johnny, if you just applied yourself to your studies you could really go places."

"I'm a Storm," he sighed, "I get a cushie office job and a steady pay check from my stock. Where am I ever going to go?"

"Well your sister's going into space."

Johnny thought about this for a moment. Suddenly a new plan was forming in his head.

"Can I come too?"

"I'm sorry Johnny," Reed told him glumly, "we've set the date for ten days time. You can't fulfil all the training requirements in that time."

"But if I could? I was the star athlete at the Fisk Academy."

"It's not just athletics, it's problem solving, handling mental and physical stress, understanding how the systems work."

"Give me some tests, let me try, I'll show you I can do it."

Reed thought about it for a few moments. Quickly an idea dawned on him.

"Here's the deal," Reed said with a smile, "I set you some tests for eight days time, giving you a week to study fr them. If you pass all of them, and the difficulty will be very high, you can come. If you don't pass you will go back to school, study hard, not get into fights, keep your head down. Deal?"

"Deal," Johnny agreed, shaking Reed's outstretched hand.

They then turned to return to the theirs. Johnny was grinning once more and just about ran back to his sister and Ben. He seemed more excited than he should, they quickly found out why.

"I'm going with you into space," he declared before running off, further into the building.

"WHAT?" both Ben and Sue cried out, before turning to Reed for an explanation.

Reed quickly explained the deal he'd struck with Johnny to his two companions. They weren't thrilled about it even when they had all the info. Still Sue hoped that it would motivate her brother into doing something other than trying to draw attention to himself. She should have known better. When she got up the next morning things looked good, Johnny was already up and studying, this was more than she expected. However, what was less than she expected was the fact he was filming himself doing it.

"What do you think?" he asked, pointing the camera at her in her long dressing gown, "I'm making a film of my attempt to join you. The first episode where I talk about my challenge is on YouTube already."

"Johnny don't make this a circus," Sue chastised, "and don't point that camera at me, especially at this time in the morning."

She walked away, ignoring Johnny's complaints into his camera about her. She had one week to make sure everything was in order with the board before she and the others headed off to the launch site in Florida. It was easy for Reed, he didn't need to prepare anything, he was just continuing the research and preping the rocket. Even Ben only had to keep running the simulator, test the ship's computerised systems and do his exercises. Sue was still running a business.

As the week passed Sue found she was able to spend less time with the board of the Storm Foundation and more on her training for the mission. She was glad of this because she needed to keep training, but worried she might struggle to regain control once she came back down to Earth.

She had to admit that she was impressed by Johnny, he was working hard on his videos and his studying. Ben might have had a big argument with Johnny about it, on camera which really helped his ratings, and some of the other scientist on the projected, notably Bentley Wittman, may have mocked him, but he was ding well. The vast majority of his viewers were rooting for him too, which he acknowledged really helped him.

Once the week was over the team, including Johnny, who was still studying, and HERBIE, who was stored within a tablet Reed carried with him, transferred to Florida. Once they were there Sue began to feel a little redundant. Johnny was studying all the time, which made a nice change from partying. Reed was so busy working on the rocket or preparing his data analysis or researching the cosmic rays further, he didn't really have time for her. Even Ben was either checking the ship or giving interviews. Sue understood why the handsome and charismatic Ben got so much attention, but she thought she warranted some herself, rather than just disappearing into the crowd. Still she couldn't complain, in three days she would be seeing what so few others had seen and she would have the chance to advance the scientific knowledge of the world. She knew her father would be proud.

Once the group were in Florida Johnny's tests began. As expected he aced the physical, he was a first rate athlete, but Reed and Sue were shocked on how well he did on his exam about the rocket itself. They hadn't realised that since the project was announced, a year and a half earlier, Johnny had been following the progress. It was one of the few Storm Foundation projects he'd cared about. He passed his first simulator test as well and scraped through his problem solving exam as well, despite some fiendish puzzles Reed himself had set. Suddenly it was time for his final test and Ben insisted it was the most important. It was being described as a deductive reasoning test. He and three others entered the simulator. He was told that they simply had to guide the ship back to Earth.

"That's it?" Johnny asked, confused by the relative simplicity of the task.

"That's it," Ben told him with a smirk before leaving Johnny to pilot the simulator.

Almost as soon as the test started the monitor went blank. One of the others in the simulator pointed out that they needed the monitor to adjust speed and range. Johnny quickly looked over his notes about the crew and saw one of them, a Scott Lang, was a computer expert.

"Can you look over the system," Johnny ordered, "see if you can get it back up."

"While the simulator's turned on?" Lang was slightly unsure.

"It's either that or flying blind. Speaking of, Mr Power, a waste of your genius I know but any chance you can look out the window and make some best guess estimates to get us back down?"

"It won't be very accurate I'm afraid," Jim Power acknowledged as he got up to follow the instruction he'd been given.

It didn't take long for the screen to come back on, letting Kris Evans readjust the navigation. As he was doing so one of the engines cut out. Johnny had no choice other than to send Power to fix it as best he could. As this fix was going on the power in the simulator's cockpit began flickering. Johnny instantly knew this was because the angle of entry was to narrow and the systems were overheating. He attempted the corrections but it didn't seem enough. Other technical faults began to show themselves but they were conquered quickly, the only one that couldn't be was the engine wouldn't restart. Nothing seemed able to fix it despite the many suggestions Johnny had and took from his team.

In the end, without the working engine and through any number of other problems, all Johnny had left to do was order his crew to assume crash positions that were as safe as possible. It was not enough. Despite his best efforts the simulator screen showed they had crashed and only Evans would have survived. Johnny came out of the simulator looking dejected. He was met by a downcast Ben Grimm and a smug looking Reed. Johnny couldn't make eye contact.

"I failed," Johnny said with a deep sigh. I did everything I could, came so close and I failed."

"Yes," Reed stated coldly, "but you should be proud of how close you came, how well you did throughout."

"It was all for nothing," a slight bitterness was creeping into Johnny's tone.

"Sometimes things are," Reed explained, "a test fails, a line of inquiry goes nowhere, experiments go wrong. That is learning, that is knowledge. The key is to never give up, just like you didn't in that test. In the end all you could do was save one life and you did. That is plenty to be proud of."

"What big brain means is that test was impossible to pass," Ben summerised, "no way to fix the engine, no way to avert the crash."

"What?" Johnny looked confused, "so I was never going to win. You rigged it so I'd fail?"

"It was a test to see how you react to a real crisis," Reed told him. "If you fly with us you have to remain resourceful at all times and never yield to panic or stress."

"Just like you did kiddo," Ben managed a smile, "looks like you're with us after all."

Johnny's eyes widened as he realised what he was being told. He screamed out a huge exclamation of joy before running off to celebrate, mostly by editing his final video. Ben couldn't help but grin as he watched Johnny go, partially because of Johnny's infectious happiness, partly because of something he'd just thought of.

"You know what Big Brain?" Ben said mischievously, "I'm glad I'm not the one telling Suzy."

Reed grimaced at this thought.

Sue hadn't been impressed when Reed told her, as a few broken pots could attest, but she accept it quickly. She had to admit that she had been impressed by how hard he'd worked to join the project. Now that she was stood next to him, in the special suits she and Reed had created, before they marched toward the rocket, she whispered in her brother's ear how proud she was of him. He grinned back to her. The media were pushing for interviews with them but they were all refused by the Storm Foundation's press secretary, promising interviews with all of them once they were back on Earth. They climbed into Excelsior and strapped into their seats. Reed plugged his tablet into the rocket, transferring HERBIE to it. Ben began turning the engine systems on ready for launch.

"Okay guys and gals," Ben said with a charismatic grin, "hope you're ready to go, cause there's no turning back now."

"All systems ready?" Evans asked over the com system from launch control.

"A1 up here," Ben answered, "waiting for your signal."

"Then we begin the countdown, Godspeed."

Sue released the breath she hadn't known she had been holding, she couldn't believe it was finally happening. She looked to her brother, he seemed jittery with excitement. She looked to Reed, he was busy typing into his computer, absorbed in his science as usual. Finally she looked to Ben, she could see how nervous he was, but he was hiding it beneath a layer of professionalism and good humour. She listened to the countdown as it quickly reached zero. She closed her eyes as she heard the rockets kick in.

"We have lift off," Ben stated.

Johnny whooped in joy, as did many of the people at mission control, everything seemed to be going perfectly. Sue couldn't believe how quickly they had reached the target site. She had taken control of the com system while Reed scanned the computer screens and Ben piloted. Johnny seemed content with taking in the view. It was then when things began to go wrong. Firstly the computer system crashed. Reed managed to disconnect his tablet before that was infected too. HERBIE had crashed but would reboot fine once things were back under control.

The trouble was that things didn't get back under control, they just got worse. The door of the rocket began to open, letting the cosmic rays bypass the firewall surrounding the ship and flood in. Reed gave a shout about how dangerous they were and the need to get the door shut. Johnny began hitting buttons but nothing seemed to shut it. In the end he bounced from his seat, letting the vacuum of space suck him closer to the door and pulled it shut himself. Once he did he discovered a strange disc that he knew was not on the design of the ship. He showed it to Reed but he was too busy trying to get the virus purged from the rocket's systems.

"We'll look at it if we get home," Reed declared.

Next it was the turn of the rocket's directional system to fail and the ship began to plummet back to Earth in an uncontrollable dive. Reed left the computer to join Johnny as he tried to give Ben some control back. In the meantime Sue tried contacting mission control to inform them of the problems. She was not impressed by the results.

"Sorry there missy," came the voice on the other side, "these stuck ups have been stuck up. Paste Pot Pete is now on the air."

"Paste Pot Pete," mocked Johnny from his position repairing the steering.

"I've been paid a considerable sum of money to make sure you don't come down," Pete continued, "at least not in one piece. So sit tight and wait for your immanent doom sweetheart."

With that the system cut out, along with almost every other system on the rocket. Sue heard Reed curse about that, the first time she'd ever heard it. The first and she didn't doubt it would be the last.

"No wait," Johnny said, sliding out from under the console, "this could be a good thing. With no other systems running, we can divert the power back to this console, boosting our botched up repairs."

"Johnny that's genius," Reed said sliding out as well, "you get back under there, I can reroute the power quicker. You finish getting the system ready fr the power boost."

Johnny agreed and he dived back beneath the console and began twisting wires together. Just like hot wiring a car, Johnny told himself, as a spark flew between his shortened circuit and the console came back to life. Ben grinned that he was in control again. It was just in time as well, he pulled the rocket out of its terminal dive just at the point of no return. The rocket would still crash but now they had a chance to survive the crash.

Somewhere in the Florida swamps, a loud thud shook the ground. Water was thrown into the air, a lot of gators were stunned and a number of trees were flattened, when the Excelsior came tumbling to the ground. Sue had been thrown from the wreckage, but had not hurt herself on impact, like she was protected by some invisible force. She sat there on the ground and watched as her boyfriend walked out next. He too seemed unharmed when she first saw him, until she realised his legs were still stuck in the wreckage and his body was simply stretching like an elastic band as he moved out. Sue screamed at this.

"Sue?" Reed called out, trying to locate where that scream had come from, "are you out here."

Sue was confused for a moment, she knew she had been thrown out of the wreckage into some shrubbery but she was still in front of him.

"I'm right here," she said.

This got a confused look from Reed.

"I'm right in front of you," she tried.

"Where? Reed asked.

Sue stood up and moved so she was less than a foot in front of him. He still didn't seem to see her. It was then that she looked at her hand and realised, she was invisible. She closed her eyes and concentrated and slowly she became visible again. Reed seemed so relieved to see her. He tried to hug her but she pushed him away, indicating his elongated limbs. He too concentrated and his body began to return to its normal proportions.

"Fascinating," Reed mumbled.

Before Sue could rise to that comment, the top of the crashed Excelsior began to bubble and melt. A figure then rose out of the hole that was being created, it was engulfed in flames. Both Reed and Sue stared at the figure for a moment, struggling to make out that it was Johnny under the flames.

"Sue are you okay?" Johnny asked sounding panicked, "I heard you scream."

"Am I okay?" Sue asked just as panicked, "Johnny, you're on fire."

"Yeah," he laughed, "I noticed that. I'm flying too."

He looped through the air for a moment before landing on the ground beside them.

"FLAME OFF," he declared and the fire just vanished, "this is awesome."

"For you maybe," Sue sighed before turning invisible then back visible again.

"Not my fault that I won the superpower lottery."

Something then dawned on Sue.

"Where's Ben?"

It was then that they heard the rumbling from the front end of the rocket. Slowly the fuselage began to shake and tear asunder. Ben stood up, but he had been changed too, beyond the changes the others had gone through. His space suit had been ripped and torn as his body had grown and hardened into a rocky substance. Johnny screamed when he saw him. Ben was unsure why for a moment. He then looked down at his hands. Once he saw what they looked like he looked to the shiny reflective side of the wrecked rocket.

"You've turned me into a monster," Ben said coldly.

"Think about it Ben," Sue suggested, "concentrate, that's how I became visible again."

Ben closed his eyes but nothing happened. Quickly he gave up on this and punched another hole in the rocket.

"I'm so sorry Ben," Reed tried to put a hand on Ben's shoulder, Ben pulled away, "I'll find a way to change you back."

"Yeah sure, whatever."

"But first we need to get back to mission control," Sue cut in, "we're somewhere in Florida and they're being held by Paste-Pot-Pete."

Johnny sniggered at the name again.

"I could probably rig this wreckage up into something that can get us there," Reed admitted, "can't be more than a few hundred miles."

Paste-Pot-Pete wore army fatigues, a balaclava and a ski mask. He had a large pack on his back with a tube leading to his gun. He was stood in the centre of mission control, making sure he was away from the windows. The Florida police were outside waiting for a chance to pick him off. He'd made two simple requests, using the people trapped in his glue-like gunge as hostages, one was for a helicopter to take him to the Latverian embassy, the other was for the chance to get away. When he heard the impact of something landing on the roof he thought his way out was there at last. He drew his paste-pistol and headed up the stairs to overpower the pilot. He was shocked by what he saw when he opened the door. It was a rocky monster.

"Don't even think it son," Ben grumbled.

Pete instinctively pulled the trigger, covering Ben in gunge up to his neck. For a moment he was unable to move. The gunge then hardened and Ben easily smashed himself free. In the meantime the Reed and Johnny rushed forward. He fired again but Reed was able to bend impossibly round it. Johnny had flamed on and heated the flow of gunge, instantly hardening it. Pete then got hit by an unseen force. He felt like he had been hit by a precision knee strike, then a thrust kick. He dropped his weapon. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd still held it or not though. Ben was suddenly in front of him and hit him with a right hand jab. Paste-Pot-Pete went down and stayed out to that blow.

After checking that the staff of the Storm Foundation were safe they took the still unconscious form of Paste-Pot-Pete out to the police and waiting media. There was a lot of murmuring over who they were, some recognised them as Reed Richards and his team, but the news had said they were dead, or at least nearly dead. Each of the four looked to each other until finally Johnny stepped forward.

"I know you have a lot of questions," Johnny smiled, "and we will answer them all in time. Right now I just want to say that we have been given superpowers by the trip into space, and if you think Spider-Man is something else, or that Ironman is cool, or even you believe in the Hulk, well remember we're four times as skilled, four times as powerful, four times as fantastic. We are the Fantastic Four."

"What was that flying bath you rode in on?" a reporter asked.

"That is no flying bath tub my friend," Johnny confidently continued, "that is the fantasticar, thrown together from the remains of our crashed ship by Mr Fantastic himself, Reed Richards. Not that I need it as the new Human Torch, like that hero back during world war two. Sue can disappear from sight and has become the Invisible Girl."

"Girl?" Sue hissed over at him.

"Trust me, I'm on a roll."

"What about that thing with you?"

"That is not a thing, that is The Thing, Ben may not have the looks he once had, but he is still the amazing hero he always was, only more so."

Ben smiled for the first time since his transformation. Johnny then put his hand out in front of himself in an over the top gesture of teamwork. Ben placed his hand on top, nodding toward the youngster approvingly. Reed gave the slightest nod and added his hand. Sue shook her head at how silly this all seemed but she added her hand just the same. The press took the photo that became the most retweeted image on the planet. Four heroes united.


	7. Origin Wasp (and Antman)

7: Origins 6 - Wasp &amp; Antman

The Alien Menace

Hank Pym returned to his normal size. For months he'd been refining his skill with his special gas, a compound he'd called Pym Particles, that let him shrink down to the size of an ant. After one disastrous turn when he was kidnapped and taken into an anthill he had developed another new device, one that let him control ants. He had become highly skilled in using both and had thought about revealing the secrets to the scientific world, but then he saw the news. He kept hearing about the adventures of his three closest compatriots from collage. Bruce had become a creature of rage and yet still managed to thwart terrorist plans and escape the army. Tony, already a billionaire before he started collage was flying round New York City in a suit of technologically enhanced armour, fighting crime and industrial action. Even Reed had been transformed into a super powered leader, even reappropriating the old name used for their science club back then. What had Hank Pym done, married his high school sweetheart and watched her get shot, joined Dyne-Amic Industries mostly because the daughter of the owner looked like his dead wife.

Speaking of Janet Van Dyne, the socialite daughter of Vernon Van Dyne, she was walking into Hank's office as he was hiding his costume. He panicked to get the draw shut before she saw the suit, but it turned out he was far too late. Janet had a scared look on her face, Hank could see she'd seen something she couldn't believe. As soon as he saw this look on her face, Hank forgot about hiding his suit, focusing on the upset young woman in front of him.

"It's my father," Janet explained, blinking back a tear, "he's dead."

Hank was shocked and rushed to comfort her as best he could. She took his hug for a moment but then steeled herself for what came next. She told him that he wouldn't believe how her father died if she told him so she had to show him. Still holding back the tears she took out her phone and loaded up a video.

The video showed Vernon Van Dyne's video log. He spoke to the camera about his latest project, one that Hank Pym had refused to be part of, preferring to focus on his Pym Particles. Vernon was attempting to contact aliens. The video showed that he had succeeded as well, a ten foot lizard like creature was beamed into the room. It snarled at Vernon in a strange language but the key moment came when Vernon tried to trap the creature. It struck out, knocking Vernon back, his head colliding with the corner of a bookcase. The reptile then smashed through the window and into the park below.

"That's incredible," Hank admits. "He was right, we are not alone in this universe. It cost him his life but he was right."

"Yes," a single tear was rolling down Janet's face as she looked at the video, "but now we need to find that thing before it strikes again."

"We?"

"Me and you."

"Why us?"

"Don't play games with me Hank," Janet suddenly sounded incredibly determined and assertive, "we don't have the time. You think you've been subtle with your shrinking experiments and your action helmet? My father knew and so do I. You might not know if you want the Antman to be a hero, but I need him, I need to become like him, we have to go after that monster."

Hank was shocked not only that his secret was much less secret but at how forthright and in control Janet was. He had always thought of her as little more than the good time party girl she seemed to be in the papers, but there was so much more to her than that. He could believe she really had taken command of the companies fashion label, he also found it impossible to turn down her request to transform her into a shrinking superhero too. She suggested turning her into an Antgirl, but Hank had other ideas, ones that featured some other new items he'd wanted to test. Janet was more than willing to go along with whatever he was planning.

It took two hours but Hank declared the operation a total success. He explained how the Pym Particles worked to shrink Janet Van Dyne down like it did him, but rather than taking a helmet with her to control ants, he'd implanted nanotech that formed wings on her back when she reached the right size, they also formed wrist gauntlets which could fire energy bolts that Hank described as stings. It took her about five minutes to find just the right outfit to match the description Hank was giving her of this new identity, a yellow, backless, leotard and yellow and black stockings. She promised she'd actually design something specific to the identity as soon as the lizard-like alien was taken down, until then the Wasp, as she now would be called, would be in a makeshift outfit. She unleashed her supply of the Pym Particles and instantly began shrinking until she was three and three-quarter inches tall. At this height the wrist gauntlets ran halfway up her arms and her delicate and beautiful wings spanned twice the length of her body. A simple thought and the wings began to flap lifting her up from the ground easily.

The look of terror and worry that she'd had since bursting into Hank's office had disappeared, replaced by a simple look of joy at being in the air. For a moment she simply hung in the air, enjoying the sensation. Then she burst into action, looping in mid-air, diving and swooping, raising up and touching the ceiling before dropping back in a spiral, sweeping the ground with the edge of her fingers before darting back up again. All the time she was doing this she was giggling with pure joy. Hank just stood there watching her for a couple of minutes. He thought about taking off after the monster on his own, not spoiling this happy moment for her, but he knew she would never accept that. He waited for her to become calm once more.

"Let's go," he said grimly.

He shrank down to match her size and called an ant to him to carry him through the air beside her. Heading out the building in the same direction as the monster seemed to be heading. Antman was using his helmet to communicate with ants nearby, trying to find out where the creature was. It didn't take them long to track it to the park, a secluded section of it where, fortunately, no one seemed to be. It was a clearing within the trees that looked mostly undisturbed. The monster seemed to be fiddling with some wires built into its armour while Antman and Wasp hung in the trees watching.

"What's it doing?" Wasp asked slightly unsure of what she's watching.

"I'm not sure exactly," Antman replied, "it seems to have electronics built into its suit. I'm not sure it's as uncivilised as we thought."

"It's still the creature that killed my father," Wasp stated, regaining her resolve, "it can't be that civilised."

She then darted from the trees in the direction of the creature.

"Wait," Antman tried to say but he was too late, "dammit Janet, we need some kind of plan to take that thing down."

The Wasp wasn't listening though, she was too angry. She buzzed round the monster, giving it a bit of a start. She then began firing her stingers, first hitting the creature in its chest, then its back, its arms and finally its chest again. The creature quickly toppled over from this assault. The fact that it was down didn't mean it was anywhere near being out however, it quickly was crawling back to its feet. The Wasp simply hung in the air in front of the monster pointing her stingers at it.

"Don't move," she advised angrily.

The creature simply darted an arm forward and wrapped its hand round her tiny body. In response to this Hank Pym began ordering his gathering ant army forward to try and overpower the monster. Wasp was unaware of this rescue attempt and was more concerned with freeing herself from the crushing grip. She couldn't direct her stingers toward the creature, so instead she activated the Pym Particles again, returning her to her normal size and bursting free of the creatures grip. She also kicked the creature in the head as she landed on the ground. She then returned to her tiny size. She began blasting the creature again as she flew round it, dodging it's flailing limbs. Now the creature was not only battling her, and failing to catch her this time, but it was also fighting an army of ants that were gathering round it. This distraction was enough for Wasp to launch yet another attack, this time barging into the monster. She was amazed to watch the monster topple backwards, but she figured she must have the same mass she always had but now it was condensed into a small package. She stopped thinking about though, focusing on the creature once more. It seemed unable to free itself from the swarm of ants it found itself in, that didn't stop it from thrashing about as much as it could. Wasp hung in the air over the now helpless creature, pointing her weapon at it again.

"You killed my father," she stated, seeming conflicted once more, "give me one reason why I shouldn't just kill you now."

"I have no reason," the creature hissed back.

"You can speak?" Wasp seemed stunned at this.

"You can speak English?" Antman was even more stunned than Wasp, he halted his ant army for the moment.

"I have fixed the translator in my armour," the creature explained, "Your father's death was unintended and in self-defence, but you have every right to seek vengeance, I accept that and lay my life in your hands."

The creature bowed its head in defeat. Wasp hesitated, she still had her weapons pointed at the creature but she wasn't sure if she could do what she thought she had to. Antman looked to her for a moment and then back to the creature, he could see her uncertainty, and decided he could use this as a chance to get more information.

"What are you?" Hank asked of the creature.

"My name is Kosmos," the creature answered, "most tongues cannot say the name of our race, the Kamylians call us Snarks, I believe it has something to do with alien literature."

"Where do you come from?"

"I was born on the homeworld, it is a war-torn husk, but it's home."

"You seem such a proud creature," Wasp gasped, "you're not the monster I thought had killed my father."

"Make no mistake," Kosmos explained, "I didn't mean to, but I did kill him, I was taken from my home and brought to this world and I lashed out. I just want to find a way home, but failing that an honourable death is a worthy way to go."

"I…" Wasp pointed her weapons determinedly, but that determination quickly faded, "I can't."

She then returned to her normal size, meaning her weapons and wings disappeared, and just looked down at her fallen foe. For the first time she saw him as what he really was, a creature taken from his home, lost and scared, but still proud. She thought about her father. He had always preached research, cooperation, peace and reason, he wouldn't want her to kill this proud creature. A tear ran down her face, she wished she could hate Kosmos, but all she could do was pity him. Antman was looking at her unsure of what he should do or say, he wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. Finally Kosmos broke the silence.

"You are a noble and honourable woman," the snark explained, "I thank you for your mercy, very few creatures in this universe have that. I am pleased to have found a world that has it."

"I'm not sure the world does," Antman replied, "just a few of its inhabitants."

"These people should be honoured," Kosmos continued, "They are heroes."

Wasp still didn't seem to know what she should do, she looked at the creature then over to Antman.

"Can you send him home?"

Antman seemed to think about this for a moment.

"Reverse the engineering prowess of a genius and operate a machine that most scientist would say was impossible," Antman summed up, "give me maybe twenty minutes and I can do it."

With that agreed the trio returned to the lab at Dyne-Amic Industries, gathering in her father's lab while Antman began working on Vernon Van Dyne's machine. As he did Wasp couldn't help but continue her conversation with her father's repentant killer. She was asking him more about his home world and what he'd be doing once he was there.

"I am a soldier, part of the 5th battalion," he explained, "guardian to the emperor himself. Protecting him from the many threats he faces."

"So you're a hero among your people?"

"To some, not everyone in the empire support Emperor Bhadsha and his more peaceful methods."

"It sounds like you have an exciting life to go back to."

"It has its moments," Kosmos agreed, "And what about you? You have lost so much and you still let me go free, you are brave and noble and now you seem to have skills others of your species do not. What will you do now?"

"Maybe this was meant to be," Wasp shrugged, "this world is filling with these super powered people, maybe I should be another one, a protector of the Earth, avenging my father's death in a way he'd be proud of. Like you defending peace and liberty."

"A noble goal for a noble hero," Kosmos nodded, "I wish you luck with that."

"We're ready," Pym interrupted, his helmet cast aside so he could work on the device.

"I am proud to have met you Wasp," Kosmos stated as he hugged her, "I am sorry of what happened to your father. My life will always be owed to you for your mercy."

"Good bye noble Kosmos."

Wasp released him and left the room, still unsure what she was thinking about the poor creature and if she should be sending it back home. Once she was gone Hank Pym's demeanour seemed to harden for what he was about to do. He pressed a button and a beam of light surrounded Kosmos.

"A remarkable woman," Kosmos stated.

"Yes she is," Pym agreed irritably.

"There are few creatures like her, at least not on the worlds I've visited."

Pym ignored him.

"You like her, don't you?"

Pym still remained silent.

"Look after her, help keep her safe, I have seen what this universe can do to noble souls."

"Like you," Pym sneered.

"Me, no, I'm just a warrior that does what he must, I have plenty of blood on my hand, I have never been a hero, just a soldier doing his job. I mean creatures like my emperor, trying to save a world that doesn't want saving."

Hank pushed another button. A wave of pain passed through Kosmos.

"I will protector as best I can," Pym explained, "that's why I'm not going to let her make this mistake. She would send you home, but when you get there and talk of the wonders of this world, they're going to want to come. Maybe not your people but you say you're not the only ones out there. I can't let that happen. She's so noble, letting you go home after what you've done, she's a hero. She's not like us. We do what we have to do."

He pressed the last button on the converted teleportation device. Rather than sending the creature back home, Kosmos was disintegrated. Unblinking Hank Pym watched as the alien melted away.


End file.
